Misery Loves Company
by GoogelehGoo
Summary: As a newly formed Organization, Saix does his best to get on everyone's nerves-the result being less favorable to Xemnas. With clashing personalities, Saix and Xemnas duke out every conversation with utter malice, much to the entertainment of the other members. A very snappy fic to give a spin on the ol' XemSai pairing. Caution: Dirt within.
1. Chapter 1

**Misery Loves Company**

A/N: Well, ladies and gents, I'm momentarily back for more. I've tossed plots around in my head and decided it's time to do another XemSai pairing, this one with bitchiness galore. I've gotten tired of reading about obedience and loyalty, or mushiness. It's time to get some ass kicking and fighting in their relationship before it turns to love.

Thus I'm giving you this fic in hopes of following that guideline. I hope to do my best.

I do not own the characters, Square Enix does.

Now enjoy.

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Saïx didn't remember anything. Perhaps some memories of really subpar events in his life and a few faces, but the rest he drew a blank on. It wasn't like he honestly cared to remember anyone, in fact he was saying a nice 'good riddance' to whatever he had forgotten, and perhaps was prepared to move on with his life. Or after life. Or whatever this was called.

But he couldn't help feeling familiar around these people. Like that nagging situation where the answer is right on the tip of your tongue, but your brain decides to be an asshole and not tell you what it is you're trying to say.

He had spent, for the most part, his first few days with the Organization in an extremely terrible mood. Anything he was asked to do he did it with such an attitude that it had, thankfully, veered away any more potential people from begging him to do their work for them.

Unfortunately, Saïx forgot to remember to filter himself when around Xemnas.

The Superior had neatly arrived into the briefing room with some folders in hand. Since yesterday he had been handing them out once in awhile to the other members, mentioning they withheld necessary information to help them on their missions. Most of it had been tasks around the very world they were in, simply trying to get a grasp of what was out there, but none of it had been particularly interesting to Saïx. Twice Vexen had tried to coerce him into taking his mission for him, which wound in quite the heated battle of words, and leaving Vexen to blow off steam alone on his mission. Zexion had only approached him once to see if he wanted to pair up to try something called 'teamwork' which Saïx vehemently refused to do. The others had given up on him after he said 'no.'

Thus it was annoying to Saïx that he could see a shadow looming over him as he pawed through a notebook of Zexion's outlining what they understood so far at being a Nobody.

"Go away," Saïx neatly remarked to the person beside him, not even giving them the opportunity to have a conversation. "If it's anything to do with a mission and needing help, you can ask someone else to hold your hand, mine are full." He flipped to the next page, half-assed reading as it was to make it seem as if he was 'extremely busy.'

"I don't need help in any missions, Saïx, but I seem to think that you might."

Saïx felt his whole body stiffen. Slowly his eyes twisted to find the owner of the shadow was no other than Xemnas.

"What." His answer being short and quipped as his recovery to finding Xemnas on the receiving end of his snarky words.

"I brought you a mission…one that I wish to accompany you on." Xemnas's eyes bore into him. "Which you will accept." It sounded as if he was daring Saïx to disobey.

"Ah…yes, Superior," Saïx stated, learning early on that Xemnas didn't take lightly to back talk. He had already gotten a knock in the head by the man, and though he had a pissy attitude, he did his best to leash it around the one man who could probably break his skull open. Saïx stood up then and held his hand out to receive the folder. "What's the mission?"

"These aren't for you. And I'll brief you as we get there. Xigbar, Lexaeus, take these." He handed off the folders to them before he opened a portal and turned his attention to Saïx. "Shall we?"

Behind Xemnas Saïx could see Xigbar grinning ear to ear about his horrid situation. A mission with the Superior was bound to be the worst of all. He was picky and overcritical and extremely sensitive to anything a person could say.

Saïx was much the opposite. He was merely negative, sarcastic, and tended to play on words rather than get angry about them.

Together he imagined that he would lose his tongue at the end of this mission, and Xemnas would probably be glad to be down one number in their group.

"Superior," Saïx spoke up, his voice hardly sounding as if he had any respect for the man before him. "May I ask for the details of our mission now?"

"We're taking a trip back to Radiant Garden…at least…if it's still accessible. I am ever curious what happened to the place after our experimentation caused such a change…even a world that's not meant to exist has appeared."

Oh great, Saïx wasn't even on a mission meant for him, it was meant for Xemnas. Then why did he ask him to take it on? What was the point? He was irritated at the prospect that his time was being wasted just to hear Xemnas gab about the details of what their former world had been turned into.

"I hardly remember Radient Garden," Saïx spat out. Then he realized his mistake.

"You…do not remember?"

Oh no. Why did he say that?

Xemnas's orange eyes pulverized his soul the instant they set on him. "Certainly you remember something, Saïx. Everyone has a little bit of memory of Radiant Garden. Even I, though…not of the place itself, but of things we have done. I, the very person who has suffered through amnesia before, still remember many things that we learned here. You cannot proclaim you remember nothing."

"I said hardly, I didn't say 'nothing,'" Saïx snarled. Then bit his tongue immediately afterward.

"Then what do you remember," Xemnas icily spoke back. It was quite the struggle behind that cool façade of his to not slap Saïx. They had only gotten through the corridors of darkness and already they were at each other's throats with contempt. Xemnas reminded himself to never pair himself with VII ever again.

"I remember Lea. Or Axel, I should say. And…seeing you. That's all, for now."

"For now," Xemnas repeated, almost mocking him. Saïx would have snarked a thing or two at him if they hadn't arrived at their destination, and in one piece.

Radiant Garden looked rather bleak, more so than what he had expected, and the area they were in didn't have any residents.

"Where did you land us?" Saïx complained. "The town is that way," he nodded in the direction that he had expected them to be in.

"I know where the town is, _Saix_," Xemnas snidely remarked. "I chose here for a reason."

"Of course, Superior."

"Am I hearing attitude from you, VII? Remember what happened last time you spoke out of line?"

Saïx grumbled but chose to ignore the threat. He instead focused on their surrounding area. Rocks. Rocky walls. A pathway of…rocks. "Let's just get this over with," Saïx growled and started to walk whether Xemnas would follow him or not. "If you ask me, it looks like this place has changed."

"No one asked you," Xemnas neatly shot back. Two could play this game.

"Really, then why did you bother taking me here?" Saïx argued back. "Is this some kind of stupid—" Saïx stopped and held his hand out to stop Xemnas from walking forward.

"Did I give you permission to—"

"Shut up," Saïx hissed. He nodded toward the front of them. "Someone's there."

Xemnas would have cracked Saïx in the head for telling _him_ to shut up, but looking out he could see Saïx was right. A person was standing there, facing away from them, looking out over the castle area. Or sort of…what it used to be. Right now it looked rather beat up. Hmm…

"Shall we continue past him?" Saïx asked Xemnas for direction, for once not being an asshole about it.

"Yes, I don't think he'll notice us. If he does, it's not like he has any reason to follow us. Continue," Xemnas waved his hand and Saïx grudgingly walked onward.

They had just hit the opening point of the area when the mysterious man turned to face them. He had long silver hair, a smug expression on his face, and catty green eyes that could kill. In his hand was a very, very long sword that Saïx took a cautious note of.

"Is this the part where you say 'none shall pass'?" Saïx joked to their newest encounter.

"This is the part where I ask if you're ready to beg for mercy," he replied, sword lifting upward to arch itself in a gleaming stream of unimaginable beauty. And death. Saïx reminded himself of that, too.

"Stand back, Superior," Saïx muttered, "I'll get rid of him and we can move on."

"Saïx, I don't think—"

"I said stand back," Saïx growled.

Xemnas lifted his hands up in defeat, "Fine." He stepped back to see what Saïx was going to do. He was going to explain who that was…and the depths of his power, but his lesser companion seemed determined to get his ass kicked. Well…he wouldn't mind some entertainment!

Saïx allowed his claymore to form in his hands, a weapon large and sturdy to handle. He hadn't completely familiarized himself with it yet. Actually, he probably only fought a few times in his current living situation, so this could prove laughable at best. But he couldn't imagine his opponent being that hard to beat. Either that or he was assuming that only weak people would be so cocky to stop them.

And the minute their battle started, Saïx realized that he was indeed wrong.

His opponent was kind enough to beat him around with the backside of his sword, only causing horrible welts wherever they hit. Saïx couldn't even move to defend himself he was so fast.

He didn't particularly remember falling onto his hands on knees, but he must have given the fact he was now facing the dirt like it was his gracious bed.

"I expect a real fight next time, and for that I'll give you one last punishing blow. Your humiliation will stem some motivation in you."

And before Saïx could turn to ask what that could be, he felt a powerful strike hit right under his ass, bursting forth all kinds of pain to the sensitive flesh there. He probably screamed. He wasn't entirely sure if he was screaming, but he assumed that his reaction was that of someone who was dying a horrible, horrible death.

Xemnas finally came over, doing his best to stifle laughter. "Well that was quite the show! You really gave him one to think about, hmm?"

"JUST SHUT UP AND HELP ME!" Saïx snarled so violently at Xemnas it had wiped his smile off his face.

"Are you all right? He didn't strike you that hard, I thought. Or at least it didn't look like—"

"MY ASS IS BLEEDING, MORON!"

Xemnas shook his head and helped Saïx up, "I'm pretty certain he hit your thighs—"

"I'm pretty certain you're a fucking idiot for wanting to come here. 'Oh Saïx, here's a really great mission to go on! Why not come along and get beaten to death by some silver-haired pansy!' Yeah, fucking wonderful!" Saïx snapped at him more. "URGH it hurts so bad I could just strangle that bastard—"

Xemnas had seen many moods from Saïx, most ranging from negative to extremely negative, but this was a new one. It seemed he was so caught up in his frustration he didn't seem to care who he was riling at. And, as far as Xemnas could tell, it was tapping into Saïx's powers and making him look all the more dangerous.

"Calm down and I'll get you back home." Xemnas opened a portal, supposing this was quite the dramatic ending to his mission, and helped Saïx through the corridors. "Try to move quickly, your torn cloak won't cover you for long amongst the masses in here."

"Just keep walking," Saïx snarled.

"I could just leave you here—"

"I would hunt you down, Xemnas, and so help me God I'd make you regret every millisecond that you abandoned me."

"I'm rather certain every second away from you is actually extremely blissful."

"If I'm such a pain why do you insist on taking me on your stupid mission?!"

"Perhaps because I wanted to see if you were improving at all with the others, Saïx. My God, you make it sound as if this was such a horrible thing to have happen to you."

"MY ASS."

"I know about your ass—"

"NO. I mean slow down, you're making it hurt more!"

Xemnas rolled his eyes and tried to accommodate for the whiny Nobody, getting quite fed up with his antics. Luckily they got back to The World That Never Was, and Xemnas promptly dumped him at the bathroom.

"Where are you going?!"

Xemnas turned to face Saïx, almost out of the doorway when he noticed Saïx's expression. "What do you expect me to do? You have wounds…you can cover them."

"Oh yes, let me just disembody myself so I can cover the ones on my backside! EXCELLENT SUGGESTION, SUPERIOR," Saïx snapped at him again. "Get back over here and help me! This is entirely your fault!"

Not being able to handle his rude behavior any longer, Xemnas shot back a snappy response to him. "Maybe if you had listened to me instead of jumping to play the hero you would have realized he was far more powerful than you! Instead you have your head so far crammed up your ass I'm surprised that's not the reason you're complaining you're in so much pain! You deserve every mark he landed on you, and most certainly that last one. Perhaps next time you will listen to me?"

"Now isn't the time to be lecturing me, _Superior_, I am still bleeding all over your damn floor. So if you want the mess to be cleaned by my conscious self, you might want to, oh I don't know—_fucking help me for once_."

Xemnas was so close to strangling him, or something worse. Maybe smacking his rear wounds just to give him something to cry and bitch more about. He would have loved to render Saïx speechless right then, to exert his power and give him some real wounds to balk at.

But a toilet had flushed thus seizing both of them from their current battling. In fact, both looked a little frazzled. Why hadn't he checked to see if anyone was in there? Lord, he probably sounded ridiculous fighting with Saïx, of all people, in a bathroom.

Axel exited the stall and awkwardly washed his hands, nervously whistling to himself before grabbing some paper towels and leaving.

Once he was gone Xemnas sighed. Stay calm. "I'll help you, but only if you quit fighting me tooth and nail about every little thing, all right? Otherwise I'm leaving you here to fix up your own problem."

Saïx looked like someone had poured water on him, but his mumbled, "Fine," was audible enough for Xemnas to see he was going to cool it. For now.

Taking the medical kit off the wall, Xemnas came back over to the sink counter and began to dig through it. Ointments, bandages, and tape were pulled out quickly when he turned to face Saïx, who was still gripping onto the sink like he might lose his breakfast. "Take your cloak off."

Saïx tossed it off, angered that the split in the back was very obvious to see, and looked back at Xemnas for further instruction.

"Lower your pants." Xemnas could see the expression on Saïx's face and he immediately smirked. "I promise this will be the only time I ever say that to you."

"Knock on wood," Saïx spluttered while struggling to lower them. He didn't get very far when he snarled. Momentarily he just stood there, somewhere between contemplating if it was worth going further or not, before he pathetically looked at Xemnas. "Okay. I think. It's stuck."

"Like your pants are too tight?"

"No, dumbass, they cloth is stuck on my wound!"

Xemnas glared.

After a moment Saïx muttered an apology.

"Right, well, okay. Then we'll just have to do it the harder way." Xemnas moved behind Saïx and scooped his hand down the man's pants, cupping one cheek while the other pulled the fabric gently away.

Saïx had immediately made quite the amount of noise. It wasn't certain whether it was from Xemnas's invasive actions or because of the pulling fabric on his flesh. It was simply loud and sounded uncomfortable.

"Good God, Xemnas! That HURTS!"

He glanced up to see Saïx's expression in the mirror. If he didn't know any better, he'd say VII was going to cry. He continued anyway, not at all caring if waterworks happened or not. Then again, he did find crying to be extremely uncomfortable to be around. He wasn't very good at comforting people. In fact he did perhaps the opposite of that.

Another holler from Saïx had cued that the other wound was free. Xemnas lowered the rest of Saïx's pants and glimpsed at the mess. "Well, you're right, he did make you bleed. Still not your ass, though, I'd say thigh."

"It's right under my cheeks, it's close enough!"

The Superior grabbed a towel and got it wet before going back over, analyzing the two slash marks. A perfect line, really. Uncanny how good Sephiroth was at rendering his foes into blubbering morons. "Actually, I might have to remove your underwear, too."

"Why!"

Xemnas hooked his finger into the elastic of the leg and snapped it, making Saïx nearly scream at the feeling. "It's so close to the wound."

"Do that again and you won't have any fingers!" Saïx growled, prepared to break every single digit the Superior had on his body.

But he ignored him, neatly undressing Saïx further to wipe up the mess properly, patting at the area quite cautiously. Though maybe he was just being slow about it because it was, in fact, humiliating Saïx. He hadn't thought that it would, but the tense behavior and twitchiness gave rise to suspicion that Saïx wasn't too fond of being so vulnerable around him. Good, maybe he'd keep that in mind!

He wetted the towel again, wringing out some of the blood, and cupped it against Saïx's inner thigh, patted outward and soon starting back again at the same spot. Each time he did he could see Saïx shifting in discomfort. Ha! He could do this all day.

Well not really, he didn't particularly enjoy having someone's ass in his face.

Still, it was amusing.

He finally finished and grabbed the ointment, neatly smearing it onto the wounds before fixing them up with bandages. Once finished, he started to wash his hands. Gingerly he watched Saïx struggle to get his clothing back on.

"Interesting how the carpet matches the drapes."

Saïx froze and refused to look at him. He then scrambled up the last of his items and left, making Xemnas chuckle to himself. Ha! That should show him.

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The Superior commented on his pubic hair.

The Superior had looked at him. Down there.

Why. WHY.

Saïx wasn't much for obsessing over the little things, but this had disturbed him in a way he didn't think was possible. Like it brought back a strange memory of a feeling he once had. Oh what would he call it? Embarrassment? Something of that sort.

Okay, so perhaps he had been naked long enough that Xemnas had noticed and wanted to just…strike up a conversation. No, that didn't even make sense, nor was that conversation material. It was just wrong.

The Superior had silvery white hair, should he comment that maybe his carpet matched his drapes as well?

Saïx sighed and stuffed his face further under his pillow, hoping that death would come sooner rather than later.

The man even cupped his cheeks. Individually! And pulled his underwear off of him!

Saïx gave another sigh. No. Don't obsess over it. Whatever Xemnas did it was clearly to be an ass. And it worked.

He closed his eyes and eventually got some sleep.

When Saïx awoke it was with a start, not quite having the most peaceful of dreams. Immediately his senses honed in on the fact that someone was in his room. Someone that wasn't supposed to be there.

Removing himself from his prison under the pillow, he found Xemnas there.

"What are you doing?"

Xemnas looked over at him profoundly surprised. "I thought you were sleeping."

"I was until I felt someone in my room."

The Superior smiled at that, "Ah, good to know you're very alert of your surroundings. I was simply leaving a new cloak for you to replace your damaged one. We're going to need to be more careful with our attire, it comes at a hefty price." Xemnas settled the new cloak on a chair. "Feeling any better?"

"No," Saïx grumbled irritably. Although he was probably just saying that to be negative.

"Would you like some medicine?"

"Are you being nice to me?" Saïx wasn't particularly certain why this was. Images of his ass being held came floating back into his mind. He honestly hoped it wasn't anything related to that.

"I'm particularly concerned for the well-being of all my Organization members."

"Didn't seem like that earlier," Saïx complained. He moved cautiously, finding that his wounds still smarted. "I think I'm going to just sleep this off."

Xemnas sighed, sounding almost irritated at that, and he went to the door. "Then be quick in recovery." He left. Saïx wasn't certain if he had slammed the door or if it was his imagination. Not like he cared, Xemnas could throw a fit all he wanted.

He lied back and covered himself up once more. What an annoying leader he turned out to be.

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Xemnas ran his fingers through his hair, obviously irate with how that turned out. "What an annoying follower he turned out to be! I can hardly stand to do one good thing for him without wanting to make it ten times worse." He sighed. "Tell me I'm not the only one who thinks this?"

The Superior was sitting with Xigbar, perhaps the last person he would typically be around, but everyone else was out, thus this untimely and strange conversation began to unfold.

"Well now, I do think Saïx has a bit of a bite to him. He's definitely not the type you'd expect civility from, and he tends to bitch more than anyone else I've known. But if you want him to smarten up and be nicer to you, you have to keep up the good charms!"

Xemnas looked over at Xigbar with much irritation. "I cupped his ass for him. I deserve utmost respect from that dog."

Xigbar tried not to laugh, but his smile was unable to be hidden. "Maybe you should tell that to him."

"Because he'd find some way to blame it all back on me, and it'd cause another fight. I don't need everyone in the Organization to think I'm crazy for picking fights with him. Axel has already witnessed enough."

"Ah, yeah, I think I heard some mention about a fight breaking out in the bathroom…"

"It was only verbal," Xemnas stated apprehensively. "And anyway, if Saïx knew how to ask for things nicely rather than shout, I wouldn't have gotten so worked up." He felt he had to justify his behavior, even though no one probably cared how he acted, just as long as he did his job right. "I'm trying to think of ways to…stop his behavior without me actually having to bend over backward."

Xigbar, while the conversation continued, had started to clean his guns. He wasn't particularly that interested in curing Xemnas's current fate with Saïx. In fact, he was more interested in getting it to be worse, but he wanted to find a way to smoothly go about doing that without Xemnas realizing his true intentions.

"Hmmm. Sounds like he needs a good talkin' to."

"If by talking you mean 'a slap upside the head' then I would most definitely agree with you."

"Nah, I mean you need to go in there, grab him by the scruff of his neck, and tell him like you told me. That he's being a good for nothin' snot and he needs to saddle up! Get with the program, duh."

Xemnas wondered if that would work. He imagined Saïx blowing a circuit. Then again, it'd only prove his point. "You're right." Xemnas rose. "Perhaps I should go back in there and give him what's coming to him."

Xigbar nodded enthusiastically, "I'm rooting for you, Superior!"

As soon as he had left, though, the Freeshooter chuckled to himself. "That's going to turn out ugly."

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Saïx opened his eyes once more as a presence was disturbing his slumber again. Turning to find who it was, he grumbled when it happened to be Xemnas. It was as if the guy couldn't take a hint.

"I'm not healed yet, if that's why you're in here. I probably won't ever heal if you keep this up."

Xemnas glared at that and flicked the lights on, successfully getting a groan of agony from his lesser companion. "I'm back in here because I'm getting very tired of your self-serving attitude, Saïx. I originally came in here trying to help your pitiful situation be less painful and humiliating, but instead you had to go and run your mouth without so much as thinking. And now I'm here to tell you to drop the sass or you're going to wind up permanently dead. I am a figure you are supposed to respect, not snap at through every twist and turn!"

Saïx interrupted him before Xemnas could get much further in his speech, mostly because was tired of hearing the same old thing over and over. "You know, Xemnas, I'm just sick and tired of all the bitching you do about me and the others. You're nitpicky and annoying. No one wants to be around you because you're an ass. And you might say I'm an ass, but that's because I want everyone to leave me alone. For some reason you're not getting the picture. If you want me to respect you, do it at a distance. You know, far away from me."

"That isn't how this Organization works," Xemnas fought back, fury overflowing within him. "I nitpick because you are supposed to be helpful, not dimwitted and undertalented! In the event that anyone else is to join us in the Organization, I need you to be an example of what they should strive to be. Instead I am being met with the world's greatest disappointment—"

"Maybe if you had normal standards, you wouldn't have such ridiculous high hopes for us! You'd realize how futile it is to put your faith in so many to get so much done."

"None of the others have proved as useless as you," Xemnas sniped.

"Then why don't you go to them and praise them at being so damn wonderful!? I am so sick of hearing you talk to me. Just leave."

"I am your Superior and you will not talk to me like that—"

"Such a pity I already did," Saïx snarked.

Xemnas finally couldn't take it any longer and he backhanded Saïx hard across the face. "Consider yourself under surveillance from now on, and I expect you up tomorrow, early, for your onslaught of missions that I will be taking you on _personally_. From this day forth, you will be treated like the dirt on my shoe until I see a drastic improvement in your behavior. And if I get fed up with your attitude, I will do everything within me to punish you within the last inch of your hardly existing life!"

With that said he moved back toward the door, glaring back at Saïx with such venomous hate. "Early. Remember that." He then left.

Saïx felt so…angered but content. Two could play this game. He gently rubbed his cheek where he had been slapped. Yes…he was just getting started.

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End of first chapter.

A/N: Hope this was enjoyable, more to come soon! Please read and review, it helps motivate the ol' brain to make more goodies.


	2. Chapter 2

Here you go, another chapter. Xemnas and Saïx begin on Saïx's punishments.

Enjoy!

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Xemnas didn't often struggle to get up in the morning, but today seemed a bit difficult to pull himself from his silky sheets and down comforter. Perhaps it was the prospect that today he was going to spend his time with Saïx, and after their last moments together he knew today was going to be entirely unsuccessful, annoying, and probably result in him having a hernia. For not being able to feel, he sure was having a difficult time withholding his contempt for the blue-haired man.

If only he would just shut up and obey. Everyone else didn't mind bending to his whims, being ever cautious to his desires in getting the utmost pertinent information on every mission he handed out. But Saïx? Gah, he did the exact opposite. It wasn't that he refused to put detail in his work. The man had been very thorough on the few missions he had been sent on. But his attitude seemed to scald the very situation into oblivion. His sarcasm and ratty behavior seemed like nails on a chalkboard for him.

He'd beat it out of him eventually, whether through these missions or from physical means. He'd find a way.

But first he had to actually get out of bed.

Xemnas groaned as he tossed away the comforts of his bed and headed to his bathroom. The only person, mind you, that had a private bathroom. He preferred time to groom himself properly without interruption, and in any case he couldn't afford more indoor plumbing. Those moogles charged right out the nose and their sales weren't very good. Sure, money could be saved, but the consequences ended up being flooding or floorboards that would collapse.

Damn moogles.

He gladly removed his clothing and stepped into his shower, turning the water to a nice warm temperature. Anything to give him comfort before the day begins. He lathered himself gently in soap, prepared to wash his hair next when the shower curtain opened wide.

He stared at the culprit, eyes wide in shock. Obviously he wasn't expecting this so early in the morning, nor was he able to react quite yet.

"Well, Superior, seems the carpet matches the drapes," Saïx snidely replied.

Xemnas would have turned crimson if that were possible, but he felt as if the hot water was covering up any form of color change at that moment. "SAÏX!"

"What's taking you so long? I've been up for an hour waiting for you," the lesser being sneered. "Are your hands broken? Do you need help?"

"Get. Out." His words were deadly. And yet Saïx's devilish eyes seemed to fear nothing.

"What's that, Superior? I believe you mentioned something about missions. Are we going or not?"

He was just trying to piss him off! It was working, but he didn't want the man to get the upperhand of him. If he started to act irrationally Saïx would find a way to pin it back on him. For being such a horrible follower, he was damn smart.

Calming down Xemnas went back to washing his hair, "You can wait until I'm finished." Though as he lathered his locks he noticed Saïx hadn't closed the curtain. "This isn't a show."

"Simply making sure you don't miss a spot, Superior. Would hate for you to be dirty."

"You are really testing my patience today, Saïx," Xemnas remarked as he began to wash out the rest of his shampoo.

"You're the one who wants to go on mission dates together. By the way, if you didn't want rude interruptions like this one, you'd just drop the whole fiasco and we can go our own ways."

Ohhhh. He finally realized what Saïx was doing. In an attempt to bug him to death, which was working, Saïx hoped to force him to cancel his punishment! He really was manipulative. If only that mind was on his side and not the other way around.

"That is not going to happen until I see vast improvement," Xemnas remarked as he finished washing and turned his shower off, stepping out and grabbing a clean towel to dry off with. "Bursting in on me while I'm showering is not taking a step in the right direction."

Saïx grumbled, annoyed that Xemnas didn't want to let up. He was even toweling off like no one was watching! "Next time I'm bursting in while you're on the shitter, then you'll be singing a different tune."

"You'll be drowning in my waste if you do that, and I'm not certain if Vexen knows how to fix staff infections quite yet." Xemnas wrapped his towel around his hips and began to groom his hair into perfection. "It'd be easier for the both of us if you simply do as you're told."

"I do, I simply approach it in a different manner."

"If by ass backwards, then I think we need to have a little talk on the right way to do things."

"Have I failed you in a mission yet, Xemnas?"

"Aside from this last one where you gained a new crack? No, but do remember we've only been here for less than a month. You have hardly shown me anything yet. It's all been luck."

The Diviner gave quite the defiant snarl before folding his arms over his chest. "Fine, let's go on dumb missions together, because this will obviously benefit both of us." His sarcasm was extremely evident.

"Glad you're finally agreeing with me," Xemnas replied as he fixed the last strands in place before throwing on his clothes. Once he tied the last string on his boot he went over to his desk and grabbed up the stack of folders, heading off to the briefing room where he dumped the stack on the coffee table. "The others will easily find those there." Along with it was a note reminding everyone he would be out with Saïx on a mission and would be back later. Well, he hoped so, unless he killed himself because he was in the presence of a complete imbecile.

"Where are we going today?" Saïx had pondered that all night. Surely not Radiant Garden. That had proved quite futile…and he didn't think his butt was prepared for seeing that horrible man ever again.

"Lexaeus discovered a new world yesterday, called Olympus. He mentioned it has a wonderful training program that would be useful for our current and possible upcoming members. I wish to take a gander myself and see how well this training program is. If it is as Lexaeus describes, it could greatly benefit all of us. Imagine—" Xemnas looked over at Saïx who looked bored with his speech. He sighed. "Look. The stronger we are, the better we survive in traveling to other worlds. It's that simple."

"I suppose it would be ridiculous if we weren't prepared to face what's out there," Saïx admitted. "Especially that man back in Radiant Garden. If we're ever going to get past him to find better details of the world in its past and present, we'll have to defeat him eventually."

Xemnas was silent for a moment, contemplating the fact that Saïx was right…sort of. "Actually if you had just kept walking, I think he would have ignored us."

"He probably would have rammed that sword through both of our spines—" Saïx stopped his complaints as they reached the end of the corridor, stepping out into a glorious sunny day. "I already hate this place."

Xemnas blinked a few times to adjust his eyes and noticed the interesting use of stone and columns. Giant statues adorned the front of an opening and decorative pots sat in all corners of the place. "Hmm…Olympus. This seems interesting, I wonder what the origins are…" He nodded for Saïx to follow along, though his counterpart seemed about as thrilled as a teenager shopping with their mother.

Through the front door Saïx allowed his eyes to adjust to the darker room, candlelight filling the stone corridor. It was small and boasted very little.

"Where exactly did he expect us to train?" Saïx mentioned, analyzing the place further until they both heard someone speak to them.

"Hey, what are you hoodlums doin' in here? Can't you see this isn't a place for ki—Oh. You must be here for the trainin' program. Some guy came in earlier, dressed like yous, probably a part of your group I'm bettin'."

Saïx turned to see where the voice was coming from. Down low was a very, very fat little man. But it wasn't a man. He had hooves. HOOVES. And fur. And horns. And Saïx was starting to wish that Lexaeus never mentioned anything about training in this place. "Xemnas," he whispered.

The Superior didn't seem too fazed by the stranger's appearance. "Ah, yes, a colleague of ours recommended this place, and as the leader I wished to seek it out and be presented with this program firsthand. If it is worthy of our attention then I will send others to attend as well."

The man-goat stared at them cautiously, eyeing them up in the strangest way possible before he shrugged, "Well, I've trained plenty of people, but I don't know if you can go the distance—"

"Trust me, you have not met men like ourselves. We can go the distance."

Saïx wanted to speak up and tell him not to sound so cliché, but it had won the heart of the goatman.

"Fine, first session for everyone is free. After that…well…we can figure somethin' out." He held out his hand and smiled. "Name's Phil."

Xemnas shook his hand, "They call me Xemnas, and this is Saïx."

"Excellent, now let's get started on that trainin'!"

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

Saïx was faceplanted against the baking surface of stone tile. He was drenched in sweat from head to toe and he was rather certain the last of his water content was going to disappear any second now.

"You still have 200 push-ups to do!"

"I'm doing them," Saïx meekly remarked, practically kissing the stone he was getting acquainted with.

"You're just lyin' there," Phil retorted. "What kind of exercise is this!"

Saïx lifted his head to sarcastically answer back at him. "I think they call it planking."

Phil snorted, "I'm still countin' over here." He then did a double-take toward Xemnas, who he had forced to do training as well. The man had tried his best to vigorously assure Phil he didn't need the training and that he was only there to supervise Saïx, but the man wouldn't take no for an answer. Plus with Saïx's devious encouragements, Xemnas wouldn't have been able to get out of it without running away through a portal. Lord knows how that would have turned out once the others heard about it. Though he honestly had to say this was much more embarrassing.

"Hey! What do you call that, a pull-up? You're half-assin' it!"

Xemnas was certain his muscles were no longer working. He was just hanging there, struggling to rise himself upward. "I've already done 100!"

"Yeah? Well the program says you need to do 200 more," Phil remarked.

Saïx bitterly laughed, "Yeah, Xemnas, _only 200_."

"Saïx, if you say one more word I am going over there and giving you a better reason to stay pasted to that floor," Xemnas snarled.

"Now look who is being irrationally rude," Saïx commented. He was enjoying this too much, even in the agonizing pain he was in.

Xemnas let go of the bar, unable to hold on any longer. In fact, he was rather certain all of his upper half was numb. "All right. We need a break—"

"You just had one!" Phil looked rather irritated at them. "I'm beginning to think you guys are really out of shape."

"What gave you that clue," Saïx mumbled from his prostrate position.

"It won't last as long as the last one, all right?" Xemnas shooed Phil away before he sat down and glared at Saïx. "This is all your fault."

"Mine? Ha! Hahaha!" Saïx couldn't hold in his laughter, though it looked rather painful from Xemnas's spot. "You're the one who brought us to this miserable place. 'Oh, Lexaeus and his giant build clearly finds this place acceptable to train at.' Yeah, of course he found it perfect, he's already a house."

Xemnas snorted at that, maybe finding it a little bit humorous. He probably should have thought about what Lexaeus found as exercise was much different than what he found as exercise. "I suppose Lexaeus really pulled one over on us."

"Yes, Superior, he sure did."

"I say we bail."

Saïx sat up at that, finally being more attentive. "I say yes, please."

"Grab your cloak, we're going." Xemnas grabbed his own and watched Saïx scramble quickly to get his. He opened a portal and the two rushed through, walking the corridors of darkness almost giddy that they escaped that torture.

"Remind me to never go back there ever again," Saïx mentioned, glancing back to make sure the portal opening was gone. Good riddance.

"Hmmmm…that's good to know, in case I need to send you back anywhere horrible, it may very well be here."

Saïx could see the evil smirk spreading across Xemnas's face, but Saïx couldn't honestly see Xemnas being able to force him to see Phil again. After all, he could probably manipulate someone else to do it. "You'd end up coming with me, and then we'd be doing this _again_. Now, where are we going?" They obviously hadn't lasted long in that world.

"Well…Vexen mentioned in one of his reports of a world of curious matters, puzzling in all of its aspects and heavily bewitched. I think we could stand to see what he meant by all of that."

Saïx rolled his eyes. It hardly sounded like it'd be puzzling at all, Vexen was just a moron. Though upon arriving in the strange world, he noticed all the clocks on the walls. "Seems someone needs a new hobby."

"Hmm…I wish I could remember what this world was called," Xemnas muttered as they walked down the first path, arriving at a door. "I suppose it doesn't matter."

Saïx didn't really care all that much, but once through the door he frowned. "Everything in here looks…"

Xemnas stared around. The room itself was small, but some of the aspects of it were big. And others…not so much. Like the tiny little door. "I'm sure you could fit, why don't you try?"

"Not in a million years," Saïx retorted. "I'm sure I'd get stuck."

"Oh? Ohhh! What is all that racket going on?"

Xemnas and Saïx looked down. The door was talking to them. "I'll give Vexen credit, when he said puzzling he was being quite accurate." Saïx bent down to face the door better. "How are we supposed to get through to the other side?"

"Take a look around, it's not too hard to figure out," the door sassed him. Yes. A door…sassed him. Saïx was beginning to wonder why he was even on this mission. Oh right, because Xemnas was being an asshole.

Saïx glanced around the place before he noticed many different bottles on the table. "What are these?" He grabbed the bottles to stare at them better. "I can't read the tiny print."

"Then don't drink it, it could be toxic."

"One of them is bound to work for us, though. If we want to go through the door, we simply have to find the one that shrinks us." Saïx pawed through the selection, finding it to be quite the task, when he found one that seemed a little bit different than all the others. "Right, I think this is it."

Xemnas waved his hand, "Go ahead."

"We both have to drink it…otherwise only I can go through, which I am not doing on my own."

Xemnas sighed, supposing that was true. "All right, then give me half."

Saïx took off the cap and handed it to Xemnas, who drank some and handed it back to Saïx, who finished it off.

They waited a moment.

"I do not feel like I'm shrinking," Xemnas mentioned calmly.

Saïx shook his head, "Me either." He looked back at the bottle wondering if maybe he did it wrong.

And then they both felt it. Xemnas fell into the chair while Saïx knocked over the whole table. Agonizing pain, probably beyond anything they had ever gone through before, hit them like a wall. A strange dizziness came over them and it felt as if they were having out of body experiences.

When it concluded, Saïx opened his eyes, only to be looking at his body which was lying awkwardly on the table and spilled pill bottles. "AH!" And then he heard his VOICE. No. Not HIS. It was..

Xemnas had heard it, too. He looked over, seeing HIS body there, half-sitting half-lying on the fallen chair. "What…."

"You're me?" Saïx asked to his body, assuming that whoever was inside was Xemnas.

Xemnas glared, "And you're me…Saïx, you idiot!" Of course, it looked very strange with Saïx's body proclaiming such. "You made us drink some sort of…switching potion!"

Saïx frowned at that, his positively tan skin looking a little strange at the expression he was giving since Xemnas never contorted his face like that. "Oh great. Well, let's find the bottle that would reverse this—"

"No," Xemnas stated, pale face already looking paler. "I'm not drinking anymore potions."

"Then how do we reverse this, Xemnas?"

"We go back and get Vexen to fix it, he will at least do it without making it worse. We will…ensure the others don't know, though, considering we would hate for them to get confused. Best to act like each other until we get fixed." Xemnas rose up and brushed himself off, suddenly feeling quite sore right under his ass. "Why do I hurt here?" He grabbed at the back of his thighs.

"Yesterday a swordsman tried to geld me, in case you forgot. Don't know how you could considering you were the one covering it." Saïx got up and touched his chest. "Xemnas…you have a very large chest."

The Superior glared at his body, finding it weird to do that. "Just…shut up and let's go."

"You're already starting to sound like me," Saïx joked as they walked back to where they came, finding a safe place to go through the corridors.

"If anyone asks you a question, Saïx, just say that you haven't had time to look over the reports and will get back to them at a later time. I don't need you giving out false information—"

"Excuse me?" Saïx asked, his newly found deep voice oozing out his words. He could get used to this. "It's 'Superior' to you, buster."

Xemnas could have KILLED him when he said that, but didn't want to damage his body. Ugh! How could this get any damn worse than it already was? Every mission with Saïx was going awry. "Just do as I asked, _Superior_, and this will all go away neatly."

"I'll do as I please, _Saïx_¸ and don't you forget that. Although I suppose if you promise me that future missions will be less idiotic, I may very well listen to your pleas."

Xemnas snarled, "Fine. Just don't mess up or it'll be hell to pay."

"Oh trust me, I'm not the one who should be worried, _Saïx_."

Xemnas walked through the corridor, not sure if he wanted to know what would happen if he messed up. Whatever, this was only temporary, Saïx would be feeling it in the long term if he misbehaved.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

"Superior, you're back already with Saïx?" It was Zexion, the youngest member, looming in the briefing room with a folder in his hand. "Although I suppose you left very early today." His eyes analyzed their physical attributes. The smell of salt made him pick up on the most basic of things. "You've been working hard, I see."

"Were you expecting otherwise?" Saïx asked curiously, watching as Zexion shrank back from the power of Xemnas's voice.

"N-No, I just meant…I noticed, was all. Ah." Zexion fidgeted and handed over his file. "I finished my report, although I wanted to ask you about it—"

"Ooooh," Saïx made such a strange noise it made Xemnas stare over at him angrily. He cleared his throat, or well…Xemnas's throat, and smirked. "Ah, depends on the question on how well I can answer it, Zexion."

"Well it's just…yesterday you sent me around here for recon, but today you sent me for a headcount of heartless in Radiant Garden. Is it effective to have us scattered on missions, or would it be best to keep us all focused on one world?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Xemnas answered, which was strange from Saïx. "Splitting everyone up to try out each world is better than focusing on only one. It gives new perspective to each situation and familiarizes ourselves with each place. This gives us better understanding to the deep connections of the worlds…and also helps prepare us in our knowledge of how far we need to go to be on top of things."

Zexion stared at Saïx's body. Did…he just…answer him?

Saïx saw the shock as well and he smoothly played into it, "Excellent observation, Saïx, and that is the correct answer. There is always a method to the madness around here." And then he got a bit daring. Maybe too daring. "Although you put it so eloquently. I often wonder why you're not second in command, really. You're much better than Xigbar ever was."

Xemnas STARED at Saïx. WHAT was he DOING. "I'm afraid my brain isn't up for such hard tasks to be second in command, _Superior_."

"Excuse me?" Saïx snapped back, but quickly recovered, "I find that offensive. I only pick _the best_ to be in the Organization. You're hardly an idiot. In fact, I know quite otherwise."

Zexion had no idea what was going on. Was…Saïx just sucking up to Xemnas? Why was Xemnas being so…_kind_ to Saïx? This was freaking him out, and yet he couldn't pull himself away from it all.

"Thank you, Superior, you're always correct. And I'll remember that from now on until the day I die." Xemnas, of course, trying to make it sound extremely obedient.

Saix would have rolled onward with that, but Xigbar had showed up then to complain about what he heard. "Heeeey…what's the deal, Xemnas, what's so bad about me? Sparky there hasn't even done half the missions I have! In fact, Saïx is probably our most worthless member around here. You even admitted yourself you thought he was below average." The man swiped his arms roughly across his chest, waiting for an explanation.

"Oh is that what I said, hmm?" Saïx hissed through gritted teeth toward Xemnas. "How very judgmental of me, considering I have been so blind to the obvious. Why, I should deeply and most regrettably apologize, Saïx, since you've been anything BUT below average. I'm such a moron."

Xemnas looked as if he was going to die hearing such words out of his mouth! He would never say such a thing! Ever! "No you're not, Superior, that is actually quite the opposite of what you are—"

"But I thought you said I was always right, so if I say I'm stupid, clearly I am."

Xemnas glared at Saïx, "That is…not what I meant by that."

Saïx was soooo enjoying this. "Oh Saïx, it's okay. See, the more you say these wonderful things about me proves my point that you're clearly on your way to better things around here. Maybe when I die, good heavens it could be soon, I'll let you have everything. After all. I'm _old._"

"WHAT." Xemnas sounded so offended.

Xigbar and Zexion stayed quiet and watched, not entirely sure what was unfolding before them.

"Oh, see? You're getting defensive for me! That's wonderful. Don't you just adore him?" Saïx asked Xigbar.

"Love Saïx? HA! Ah. Yeah, Superior. Love him like a poke in the eye. Though he is buttering you up rather well it seems."

"Ooooooooh?" Saïx responded, his voice oozing such a powerful hunger to it that Zexion turned crimson. "Saïx, is that what you're doing? Why…I'm quite flattered. _Intrigued_ even."

"Ah, what?" Xigbar asked before Xemnas could.

"Yes, WHAT do you mean by that? Superior, I think all that sun we've been exposed to has dehydrated you, thus making your speech slightly hard to comprehend. Allow me to escort you to your room before you damage anymore of your reputation amongst the others." Xemnas grabbed his body and did his best to respectfully push Saïx out of the briefing room, clearly not wanting to make it look like Saix _had_ to lead him away.

"Oh you can escort me any day," Saïx purred, finding so much amusement in this. Who knew being Xemnas would have such a fun advantage!

Xigbar and Zexion glanced between each other as they had left. That was…what.

As soon as they reached Xemnas's room, Xemnas let Saïx have it. "What are you DOING? I told you to act normal so you go and twist my words and make me sound like I'm infatuated with you? Are you mad?! The others will start to think things if you keep that up, and by God I will not let you sully me any longer!" He was not finished with his speech and he made certain Saïx didn't interrupt by closing in their personal space, much like beasts ready to attack each other. "Now I have to make something up. Say you poisoned me, because that is quite close to what happened! I would never find anything about you interesting to even contemplate for a mere second of my existence! In fact, Xigbar was absolutely right about you! You're below average, you're a moron, and you're utterly worthless to the Organization! You'll never be second in command for as long as this Organization stands, got that? The fact you would even try to weed in such a thing while we're in this position is absolutely the lowest thing you can do, trying to worm around doing anything and yet still reap power. Well forget it!"

Saïx felt quite offended by all of that, and if he had a heart it would be doubled by hurt. He couldn't believe Xemnas was saying all of those things…and it honestly didn't settle well with him.

"Fine, think what you want. Go to Vexen and get him to reverse this if it makes you feel any better." He sat down in Xemnas's comfy chair.

"You should come with so that he understands the situation better—"

"It's your problem, you deal with it," Saïx snapped. "I'm not the one who is losing out. You are."

Xemans glared but he turned to the door. "Fine, I'll bring him here and get him to see the situation for what it is. Don't go anywhere, we're absolutely powerless in this state."

Saïx rolled his eyes and watched his body walk through the door. Well. He could either give in and get back in his body…and probably get a world of ass-kicking done on him by Xemnas for doing anything against his wishes.

Or…

He could pretend he was Xemnas, effectively making it look like Xemnas, as himself, went a bit off his rocker. Well. Wasn't like he had acted as much of anything in front of the others but pissy and sarcastic. It could entirely be possible that he'd go around saying he was the Superior.

Be rather funny to see how Xemnas would deal with that situation. Ha! Well, he had his answer.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

Vexen's arrival to the Superior's quarters felt rather awkward and strange. He had not been summoned and therefore didn't feel his presence was necessary, but Saïx—or was it Xemnas—demanded that he come here to see the situation for what it truly was. Something about there being some kind of body switch back in Wonderland and he needed to fix it, and soon.

Either way, being in the office felt strange and as if he had walked into the wrong room.

"Ah. Well. I'm here," Vexen stated to catch the Superior's attention, who was sitting at the desk with some reports open. He looked busy. Egads, he hoped this wasn't some kind of horrible trick Saïx was planning. Last thing he needed was a reputation for being gullible.

"All right," Xemnas spoke up, still as Saïx, and he looked toward his body. "Saïx."

Saïx did not look up, not at first anyway. When he had he looked a little perturbed in seeing them. "Is there something you wish to discuss with me?"

Vexen started to sweat. He still sounded quite like the Superior. "Ah. Saïx here…or well…Xemnas? Is saying that…you are him and he is you?" That sounded utterly illogical. He reminded himself not to speak ever again without first processing out his sentences.

"Repeat that?" Xemnas's voice seemed to ooze irritation at not understanding what Vexen meant, and Vexen was really starting to hate being stuck in the middle of it all.

"My apologies, Superior, it's just that…Saïx came to me on urgent matters saying I must come here to 'see the issue.' He mentioned that you both went to Wonderland together, drank a strange potion, and that you both are no longer…yourselves and are, in fact, the other."

Xemnas glared over at Saïx. WHY was he being so difficult right now? "Which is true."

Saïx gently raised an eyebrow, enjoying every little second of this moment. "That is quite the allegation, but Saïx has it wrong. We went to Wonderland, _he_ drank a potion, and has been acting strange ever since. I was rather certain it'd wear off in a few hours, so I didn't bother asking you to waste your time on him. Obviously the strange activity has escalated."

Xemnas was _furious_! How could he do this to him! "SAÏX, this is NOT funny. Tell Vexen the truth!"

Saïx looked over at Vexen, "Those potions do wear off, don't they?"

Vexen cleared his throat and nodded, "Ah…yes, they do. Eventually. When I was there…well, that was all in my report, the unfortunate things that happened. But yes, it wears off. Saïx will be fine within a day, certainly."

"Then we'll leave it at that," Saïx mentioned and he fanned for Vexen to leave.

When the older figure left, Xemnas snapped at Saïx again. "Is this some kind of revenge!? When I get back in my body I will make you regret ever crossing me like this!"

"Calm down," Saïx calmly remarked. As Xemnas he felt as if…his temper was quelled. Or maybe he just felt rather good being in power. "Vexen told us what we needed to know. That it runs out after awhile—"

"A day, practically! That is a day as _you_."

"A day well spent, I might add." Saïx got up and moved to Xemnas's private room that was next door. Upon entering he made his way toward the bathroom, all the while Xemnas followed him.

"If this isn't cured by tomorrow I am forcing Vexen to fix this issue, and you will tell him the truth instead of pretending you're me! Which, might I add, is ridiculous you would only do that after screwing up with the others." Xemnas continued to follow him, but soon stopped short. "Why are we in my bathroom?"

"You mean _my_ bathroom?" Saïx happily remarked as he gloated at the idea. A private bathroom! This was nice. "After that Olympus problem I contemplated taking a bath." His eyes went toward the gloriously gorgeous bathtub. It looked like it had not been touched, but kept extremely clean. _Mine_.

"No!" Xemnas stepped in front of him. "That is my body!"

"I've already seen it naked this morning, which you did not seem shy at showing me at all. I think I can handle bathing it."

"I don't trust you," Xemnas hissed. "You'll act strange or something…weird."

"I don't even know what you're saying," Saïx mentioned as he leaned onto the porcelain sides, staring at all of the beautiful artistry that went into crafting that tub. Oho. Oooh…he could already feel how good it'd be.

"I'm saying after the stunt you pulled with the others, I have no idea what you're capable of," Xemnas bitterly remarked, flinching when Saïx turned on the water. "Saïx!"

"If you're so tense about the situation then join me. It'll put us both in the same situation, causing neither of us to ever speak about it outside of this room." Saïx looked back at Xemnas who looked appalled. It was rather funny to see his face like that. "What? You are sweaty and covered in Olympus dirt. I would know, considering I was in that body when it happened."

"You're asking me to _join_ you."

"Yes? The tub is rather large if you ask me…"

Xemnas didn't want to be the one who thought like _that_. He didn't want to seem immature about it all! But it did seem…very wrong. Like there was a giant elephant in the room and they were just sidestepping it, though with difficulty. "If you promise this never leaks out, then fine."

Saïx had thought Xemnas would put up a bigger fight than that, but supposed the man would do anything to ensure his body wasn't scarred in any way. This was rather invigorating to have him so agreeable!

"Glad that's settled." He began to add in bath salts and enjoyed the glorious aroma that came with. "Hmm…might have to steal this later."

"You are not removing anything from my room," Xemnas bitterly remarked.

"_My_ room."

"Yes, it's as much of your room as this blue mane is mine. A day. That's all."

"Of course, _Saïx_, I will not forget it," Saïx joked toward his body, getting another glare. Hmm…he did look rather unfriendly when he glared.

Once the tub finished Saïx began to strip, though not without being a bit showy. "How's this for being like you, Superior?" He rolled his shoulders a bit, cloak sliding off of him as if he was wearing a sexy number underneath.

"Don't do that," Xemnas spluttered. "I look stupid doing that."

Saïx laughed, "Oh, I was going for sexy."

"Mortifying, more like it."

"Well, if you don't like how I undress you, you could undress yourself?"

"As if that doesn't sound confusing at all," Xemnas muttered. "And I am not going to…do that. It'd just seem wrong."

"Why, you touching me like that? But if you're ordered to do it, _Saïx_, then it's not really a bad thing, is it?"

"I think you lost the morals somewhere in there," he fought back. At least he really didn't want to give Saïx the satisfaction of obeying him. He tossed off his clothing, feeling strange to be…naked and Saïx. Lord this would haunt his mind for many nights. "Just get in and let's hurry up."

"Of course," Saïx replied dryly as he finished undressing and stepped in, Xemnas joining him. They faced each other, legs nearly entangled, but at least better than anything else. Saïx sighed rather happily. "Just what I needed after a day like that."

Xemnas didn't say anything, obviously just as pleased but doing his best not to show it. After quite some time of silence, Xemnas finally got to work in washing his hair, being slow and methodic. "Your hair is a bit rough, Saïx."

Saïx grunted, obviously not caring.

"What do you do to it?"

"I wash it."

"With what?"

"Shampoo, surprisingly," he sarcastically remarked.

"Do you condition?"

"Do I look like I do?" Saïx asked almost finding it laughable he was asked that. Though…looking at Xemnas… "Wait. You're saying you do?"

"Yes…my hair is quite a symbolic thing. It would be a shame to not take care of it."

Saïx didn't quite get it…but then again. He did suppose it was obvious to know who the Superior was. His hair was quite nice. "Hmm. Didn't think about it that way."

Xemnas worked conditioner into the blue mane, doing his best to lather it well. "You should take better care of yours, especially at this length, otherwise it'll look damaged and as if you rolled out of bed."

"Ah…because sometimes I do roll out of bed without taking care of it."

"Ugh, Saïx…proper grooming is everything about a person. It shows that you care. After all…this is all we have left, our bodies. These…empty shells. These husks. But they're _ours_. To neglect it would be to spit in the face of what we have left, what keeps us here."

Well…now Saïx did feel a bit bad about not being more careful. "I'll keep that in mind." And then he felt Xemnas getting closer to him. It was strange to see his former self…well…creeping toward him with the water cascading off his body like that. "What are you doing?"

"I'm washing _my_ hair, because I don't trust you to do it properly. If you rough it up it'll look terrible and I won't have that!"

"Yeah? Well try to keep my lower end below the water line, I don't need a face full of myself."

"I go any lower I'll be sitting in your lap. I don't necessarily want to feel myself like that."

Saïx laughed. That would be…

And then Xemnas started to work against his scalp…and it felt really, really good. He had very gentle fingers, and they massaged his head as if knowing all the right places to touch.

"I think you should wash me more often."

Xemnas frowned at that. "What?"

Saïx realized what he said. "I…uh, no, I meant—"

"I'll pretend I heard nothing." Xemnas finished his work and washed out the conditioner. "Now hurry up and bathe, I don't want anyone...accidentally coming in or anything while we're like this. It'd seem inappropriate and strange."

Saïx didn't argue, supposing that he'd be the one that'd get the worse end of that deal once he was back as himself. The harassment from the others would probably be pretty constant. And so they bathed, in silence once more, until finished. Though after getting out and drying off with a towel he frowned. "Oh. I'll need to borrow your clothes."

Xemnas frowned, "You mean…I have to borrow my own."

"Well, yes. You can't go through the hallways like that from this room, and the corridors of darkness don't exactly like the naked."

Xemnas supposed that was true. But then he frowned. "Why would I be leaving here?"

"You're…sleeping in my room tonight?"

"Oh no." If there was anything he would not do, it would be inhabit Saïx's room for a night. Not in a million years! He had worked hard for his comfortable bed and he was not going to leave it behind even for a night. "I'm staying here."

"As if that doesn't look strange at all to the others."

"They probably don't even care where _you_ are."

For a moment Saïx would have argued, but then realized he was right. Damn. "Fine. Join me _in bed_."

"Don't say it like _that_," Xemnas hissed. "Not while you're me."

Saïx chuckled and peered into the closet, finding some suitable sleepwear to put on. Once they were clothed they headed toward the bed, "Which side would you like to wake up on, Superior?"

Xemnas sighed and pointed, "Hopefully that one."

Saïx got in and was surprised at how roomy and nice his bed was. Well. Not quite as roomy as he would have preferred, what with Xemnas now scooting in beside him. Although he at least didn't mind sleeping beside his own body. He smelled clean and looked fresh, and he knew Xemnas wasn't one to play pranks.

"I suppose this is good night."

"Yes, hopefully better than our day has been."

Saïx toyed with a piece of his long, white hair. It was very soft and the ends even seemed smooth, something his real mane lacked. His mind went back to what Xemnas said. To…take better care of his body. Was that one of the reasons why Xemnas was so opposed to him? So mean, at times, or at least an asshole to put it nicely.

Hmm….

"What will we be doing tomorrow, Superior, if our bodies are back to normal?"

Xemnas stared up at the ceiling wondering the exact same thing. "Perhaps go over reports and find another world to attend to. These past few have gone inexplicably wrong for us, but that streak can't hold up much longer. We'll find some worlds to go to that will help improve your behavior soon enough."

His behavior…? "What's wrong with my behavior?"

"Saïx, the reason I chose to accompany you on missions was because you were below average in taking on missions. You have only done a few, all of which you…hardly tried. You're a poor fighter, and your recon could use some work. If you're going to survive being here, it seems I will have to walk you through everything."

Saïx felt that seething feeling deep inside him. Right. Xemnas was back to being his usual asshole self. He'd have to remember to avoid him somehow if he got his body back tomorrow. Maybe if Xemnas couldn't find him, he'd drop the heinous idea that he needed to be babysat on every mission known to man.

"That bad, hmm?" Saïx rudely sneered.

"You hardly know how to wash your hair. It's bad."

Saïx rolled his eyes, "Sorry I committed crimes against my follicles, I will never do it again."

His sarcasm made Xemnas glare at him. "It should be a crime to be such a mongrel like you."

"Guess you'd be a criminal then, considering you _are_ me."

"You do have a point there…" Xemnas muttered. "Still. I would be more pleased if you looked more professional."

"You never complained about it before!"

"I try not to look at you for very long. It aggravates my eyes."

Saïx wanted to punch him, but knew that wouldn't really do any good. "You only started to complain about my hair _after_ washing it. I know you never thought about it before then."

Xemnas shrugged, "Still you could use some help."

There was silence before Saïx bitterly remarked, "Is that an invitation for you to start moving in on my personal hygiene?"

"Consider it a part of your missions."

"Oh yeah, can't wait to tell the guys. 'Today Xemnas and I went to Olympus to workout, then we read reports together, and then washed each other's hair and talked about our memories of feelings!' As if that would go over well."

"Okay, I'm not going to wash your hair for you," Xemnas snidely interjected. "I'm not a hairdresser, you're going to have to do it yourself. I'm simply saying I'll give you basic tips. And what not to do to your hair so it won't be a ratty mess."

"It was never ratty to begin with!"

"You said you forget to brush it!"

"Maybe I was exaggerating just to get a rise out of you?"

"I don't care, it's clear that you have absolutely no idea how to look proper."

Saïx rolled away from Xemnas, "Good night, Superior."

"Oh, that's how you're going to end this—"

"Yes. Good. Night."

Xemnas snorted but knew it wasn't worth arguing with Saïx anymore. What a sore loser. He sighed and hoped tomorrow would be more favorable…like getting his real body back.

With that both of them ended the night in silence, soon falling asleep in the comforts of Xemnas's bed.

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End of Chapter

Hope you liked this one! The tolerance has only half started, if that.

Please read and review! And until next time…


	3. Chapter 3

A fluff chapter, as I'd call it. Enjoy!

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The Superior heard the pattering of rain start in the early morning, a thunderous clash of taps against his window awakening him from his slumber. He had actually slept well last night, surprisingly, and felt more refreshed today than he had in quite awhile.

Gently he sat up and found he was back in his body and that Saïx hadn't awakened yet. The man's legs were thrown across his hips and Saïx was sideways on the bed, looking as if he had struggled a bit last night. Lord knows why.

"Saïx," the Superior remarked as he pushed away the limbs of his lesser companion and pinched his side.

It effectively woke up him, although not quite as harmlessly as planned.

"Ow! Don't do that!" Saïx snarled and slapped Xemnas's hand hard before realizing who he had done that to. "Oh you're…you. Now." Shit.

Xemnas glared, though almost felt devious about it. "Yes, I am me now. And you are _you_. Meaning I am back in my rightful position as leader of the Organization and you are once again my pawn."

Saïx rolled his eyes and lied back, "Some ruler you are. I got to enjoy the depths of your bed last night."

"And my bathtub. And my hair products." Not that he was bitter or anything, but it did feel a bit aggravating that someone so worthless got to enjoy all of those finer aspects of his life. Like a complete leech that stole from him what was rightfully his. "I expect repayment."

"And how do you want me to repay you, sir? I have nothing of value, nor am I capable of doing anything worthy of value."

"Well, I can think of all manner of things I could do to you, Saïx. All of which still involve being in bed." He was of course joking, waiting to see his companion's reaction to such tormenting demands. It had worked out effectively as he thought.

Saïx went utterly silent, the uncomfortable tension falling back between them, and the figure clenched up a bit. "I think that would be a bad idea."

"But if you're ordered to do it, Saïx, then it's not really a bad thing, is it?" Xemnas mocked him. "After all, that's exactly what you told me yesterday."

He relaxed once more after hearing that, no longer feeling threatened. "I was just harassing you because I had some power. It's not like I would ever _do_ anything to you, nor would I ever want to."

Made it sound as if he was appalling! "Oh really."

"Yes, really." Saïx sat up and got out of bed finally. "What mission are we starting with today?"

It was a glorious sight to Xemnas to find Saïx running from the subject at hand. Oho. So it meant he was uncomfortable with such thoughts. _Good_. He was going to have to make it more unbearable for the Diviner, especially considering yesterday had been a trial in itself. And besides, a little harassment would go a long way. If Saïx didn't like the attention, it meant it'd stop him from being so obnoxious.

He got out of bed as well, snatching Saïx's arms from behind and slamming him face down on the bed. "The morning might have to start like this."

Saïx obviously did not take kindly to that. In fact, it had made him rather angry. He twisted around and hit Xemnas hard in the jaw, though it didn't seem to knock him off. "Back off or you'll regret it."

His jaw smarted, the pulsing sensation growing each second, and his eyes angrily went down to the defiant member. "I think you're the one who is going to regret laying a hand on me after all that I've done for you. If I had actually wanted you, Saïx, you would have already been mine. Now get out. And take off those clothes. I don't want you in them any longer."

Saïx was forcibly helped up and he threw off the items, though a bit resentfully at that. Xemnas was making him strip! And he still needed to get to his room! Asshole. "Hope I ruined them for you, Superior, so that you'll never wear them again."

"Oh please, clothes can be washed. Now go. I expect you ready for missions in a half hour."

Saïx grudgingly left. He didn't even get to grab his dirty clothes from the bathroom!

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Saïx was horribly pissed. His journey through the hallway in underwear hadn't gone unnoticed by Lexaeus who was up early. Those eyes, silently judging him, as he tried to walk as confidently as possible back to his room. And it seemed the Silent Hero wasn't as silent as he gave off to be, given the fact that Zexion later knocked on his door to ask him if he had lost his clothes, and that Xigbar had tipped him off on such things.

Ugh.

He had easily scared off the smaller threat with snarls and angry answers that he hadn't been bothered since, but it stuck with him and seemed to grow into a throbbing reminder once Xemnas came to get him.

He could see the spot where he hit him had started to bruise slightly.

The only victory he was going to get out of this.

"Superior," he shrewdly said, malice in every last inch of that word.

"Saïx," Xemnas remarked just as coldly. "Oh, I see you finally brushed your hair. It looks halfway decent for once."

"I brush my hair every morning," Saïx nastily replied. "Seems you haven't removed that cob up your ass."

"And it seems your behavior is just as tasteful as eating shit. Follow me."

Saïx got up, not sure why he was bothering in doing so, and followed Xemnas hatefully toward their next destination. It was at a table in the briefing room with piles of folders upon it. A dreading feeling consumed him. Folders meant missions. But this looked like it was going to be a lot worse than going on a hundred missions. Much, much worse.

"Today we're going to learn how to go through reports properly."

Saïx felt dumbfounded. "Why are you making me do this job? You're the one who goes through the reports."

"Because I decided that I have a lot of things I need to do, so I need someone else to read through everything and learn how to summarize it to me. I've decided that since you are a failure in everything else you do, that your job can be something far easier and less thought out. And since you'll be here all the time, you can start doing all the house chores, too."

He had never felt so humiliated before. It wasn't the fact that Xemnas was being rude to him, but that he found him so profoundly incapable of work that he was making him do _paperwork_ and _chores_. As if he was some kind of child!

His lips pursed into a tight line.

"First thing you do, Saïx, is put each world mission together. Anything that is Radiant Garden goes in its pile, anything that's Olympus in another…and so on. I trust you are capable of doing that? Yes?" Xemnas didn't even get a sound of recognition out of him. "Maybe I should start with smaller words?"

Saïx lost it. He flipped the table and snarled at Xemnas. "Fuck your paperwork, I'm not going to do it! And the fact that you think I'd sit here and be chided at like I'm an idiot proves you're twice the moron." It was rather shocking that he had lost it so quickly. To think that only a few hours ago, they were sleeping in bed together without much hate or malice toward each other. Perhaps a bit of bitterness, but there was a bond there starting to form. And now? Now it was gone. And in its place was Saïx's anger and Xemnas's incapability to handle disobedience. In fact, his reaction to Saïx was something he wasn't expecting.

"Pick it up."

It was a very clear and concise order, but momentarily took Saïx back. The look on his face was tense and Xemnas appeared to be holding back what could be a rather big whiplashing. But Saïx couldn't take back what he did.

"They're your papers. You pick them up."

"Saïx. Upright that table and pick those papers up _now_. I'm not going to repeat myself."

"You can say it or not, I'm not going to do it."

"Fine." His words were stern and short. "I am tired of fighting you with words, Saïx. I think it's time you get what you've always wanted. A fight with me. An actual one. You're constantly picking for one, then I will finally accept your foolish endeavor. And if I win I am expecting you to accept my orders even with your snarky attitude, as it seems I cannot change that. And you'll do whatever I tell you to do. And if you win—"

"You'll never ask for anything from me ever again."

Xemnas clenched his jaw before smirking, "Fine. Outside."

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Saïx didn't have a chance against Xemnas. Everyone knew this. The rest of the Organization members, who were far smarter and stuck to obedience, could see that the inferior member was barking up the wrong tree and that the figurative tree was going to smash the figurative dog. Brutally.

And he was.

"Xemnas is not holding back," Zexion quietly remarked as he peered downward at the brawling members.

"I think he is, though he's letting out a lot more than he really should," Xigbar mentioned. "Although I imagine it had to come to this, what with putting up with Saïx all the time."

"I hope he kills him," Vexen bitterly spoke up, if anyone would even listen to his insistent whining. "He's interrupted me from important things and has refused to do anything else with me when asked. He's a tyrant. Hardly the person I remember volunteering for our experiments."

"He was young," Xaldin defended him. "He was naïve. Headstrong, like Axel."

"Yeah, but I'm at least obedient here," Axel rudely added.

"Then why is Saïx so different than Axel?" Lexaeus questioned.

It stunned them all into silence.

"Something that we will have to further look into," Zexion finally replied.

"Oh damn," Xigbar hissed. "What just happened."

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Saïx had been getting his ass kicked, but he hadn't expected Xemnas to be so harsh with his thrashing. He was definitely the stronger of the two and seemed cold and calculated in every hit he made, each impact worse than the last. And it wasn't like Saïx wasn't used to hitting his pain threshold. He had done many things in his life that he'd call stupid and painful. But this was like murder. Xemnas's aerial blades burned his flesh like fire to paper, and each hit left scalded skin behind.

As he tried to recover from blow after blow, trying his best not to cry out in agony whenever he was hit, the Superior had done something he thought was unthinkable. He had hurt him, more so than he had before.

The Superior stood over him after bashing him down once more, the Diviner hardly able to move after such a blow. Yet Saïx moved his head to look up at Xemnas, spotting that look of disappointment strewn across his Superior's face. Yes. Disappointment. As if to say that he really was worthless in trying to battle him. That his lesson here should reflect on him always and forever. And with that, Xemnas thrashed his blades across Saïx's face.

He hardly had time to register the pain. In fact, he mostly remembered the way he had looked at him, and then the immediate feeling afterward. Blood began to run down his face and everything he saw looked red. Only a few seconds after that his eyes began to burn fiercely. His face suddenly felt like it was on fire. Then he was blind.

Xemnas watched the defiant member holler and snarl at what happened, curling up on the cement and cursing him in so many profane ways he was rather glad the others couldn't actually hear him. But they were watching. They knew what happened. And he was glad of that. He wasn't to be disobeyed. He wasn't to be disrespected.

Consequences happened when he was met with either of the two, and most definitely both.

His victory seemed bittersweet, though, as he could hear Saïx's curses turn to sobs. It was a strange noise to be met with. Not that Saïx sounded stupid, but that it struck him powerfully. Crying was usually associated with having a heart, and here Saïx was expressing such because of him. The pain must be unimaginable for someone as nasty as Saïx to be weeping.

Slowly he stepped forth and bent down, touching Saïx gently. Instantly the man thrashed away from his grasp immediately.

"Get away from me! Don't touch me." His voice was snarled with hate and contempt for his Superior, hoping to drive him away.

"If you don't let me help you, your eyes will be permanently damaged, Saïx. Let me get you inside and we'll flush them out and get your wounds covered—"

"What good would that do," he sarcastically replied. "What good am I to you whether I see or I don't? It's obvious to me that my importance is insignificant now."

"Quit whining," Xemnas growled and grabbed his arm, yanking him to his feet. "You had asked for this and I delivered. Next time you will not be so trite with me when it comes to taking an order."

He was bitter at his treatment, but Saïx felt dizzy when he was pulled up and lamely sought Xemnas for support. He felt cheated and humiliated. The shame weighed on him worse than all the weights Phil made him use at Olympus.

He felt worthless. For once he actually felt as everyone described him as.

Once inside, Xemnas took him to his private bathroom. It was just easier and kept the eyes of the others out of the way. He eased Saïx over the sink and turned it on. "Here, try to wash up. Do your best to open your eyes and get them rinsed as well. It'll hurt but the faster you do it, the better this'll get."

The minute Saïx put water to his face he cried out in pain. It felt like someone had thrown acid on top of the horrible burning he was feeling.

"I told you it's going to hurt," Xemnas remarked as he tried to help him.

Saïx began to struggle. "Stop! Stop! It hurts too much." He pulled back, or as much as Xemnas would allow him, and tried to catch his breath.

After several more attempts Xemnas sat Saïx down and grabbed a wet towel, patting away at the giant 'X' slash he had made. The instant the towel touched him Saïx would cry out in pain and ask for him to stop. "I'm sorry, Saïx, but if I keep stopping this will never get finished."

"You're pressing too hard!"

"I know it's a bit rough, but in not doing so it may get infected." Xemnas stopped once he had patted it all down. "Now open your eyes for me."

"I can't they hurt too much."

"Just…only for a moment, Saïx. I want to see how bad it is."

It took some will power, but Saïx did. They weren't open for long, but it was clear as to why he kept them shut. They were bloodshot and looked to have not rinsed out enough of Saïx's blood, though he doubted he could get Saïx bent over the sink again. "I'll have to see if Vexen can make you some eyedrops to fix this. How is your vision?"

"Everything is blurry."

"Okay. Well. I can't do much to fix that. Allow me to put some ointment on you and I'll get it wrapped up."

As he gently did so, he found that Saïx didn't say anything at all. He was quiet. Very quiet, and it did seem to worry him. He had simply…wanted Saïx to obey. To stop defying him. To..be reminded of this each day.

And now he was thinking it was the biggest regret he had.

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There wasn't much they could do. Vexen made a potion, although with much bitching about Saïx deserving such punishments, and the rest would simply have to heal with time. Xemnas ordered Saïx to do bed rest for a week, at least while his vision was still doing poorly, and he visited him daily. Maybe even more so than once or twice…

Xemnas eventually got over his regret, though it hadn't stopped him from constantly thinking about what he had done. The way Saïx had cried after being hit like that…it disturbed his mind. It reminded him of being human. Something he'd expect from a person with a heart.

But…obviously it did not require a heart to cry, did it? No, the amount of pain was enough to cause his reaction. Saïx had simply reacted to pain, not emotional distress.

Yet each time he walked into that room he couldn't help but wonder if Saïx was far more distressed than physically shown. His sarcasm had toned down, but his words were just as bitter as ever. But quiet. More quiet than usual…

He entered the dark room that belonged to the Diviner, spotting the figure sitting up in bed. Typically he'd find Saïx asleep, and he'd not disturb him until absolutely necessary. He did find it peaceful to watch him sleep, strangely and embarrassingly enough to admit such a thing, but Saïx looked as if the world could end and he would not awaken for it. Today was much different, and Xemnas almost felt disappointed that he couldn't sit there and watch him for a few moments.

"Saïx."

"Superior," Saïx muttered. "Back again."

Was that annoyance he heard? Ha! He couldn't help but smirk at such poorly hidden contempt Saïx had for him. He almost felt flattered that he could be such a pain to the man. "Here to help you as usual." Xemnas scooped up the bottle of eyedrops and patted Saïx's knee, making him automatically scoot to tilt his head back better. Gently Xemnas moved the bandages out of the way and administered the drops, smiling each time Saïx flinched. Once finished he smoothed the bandages back in place, but soon stopped when he noticed that they were a bit soiled.

"When's the last time you changed these?"

"The last time you did it," Saïx mumbled.

"Am I to do it every time?"

"Given the fact you're the cause of it, I don't see why not," Saïx grumbled bitterly.

There it was. That sass. Xemnas was glad that he didn't have to hide his pleasure from that tone. No one was around to see, and Saïx couldn't complain since his face was covered. "When's the last time you bathed?"

"Oh please, don't bitch about hygiene now. All I've done is slept—"

"I'll take that as admission it's been awhile."

"I can't _see_. How am I to get to a bathroom without eyesight, let alone bathe?"

"Allow me to bathe you—"

"Uh. NO." Saïx's words were very direct and sounded quite offended that Xemnas would even offer such a thing! "I'll be good in a few days, I'll take one then."

"Why are you so obstinate against bathing?"

"It's not the bathing that's the issue, it's _you_ helping that is the issue."

Silence hit them. Saïx fidgeted uncomfortably as he couldn't tell what Xemnas was thinking on such an admission.

"I've already seen you naked. Twice, actually. Once after Sephiroth destroyed your rear and again when I had to actually be you."

Saïx snorted, "Yeah, and the first thing you say to me after the first incident is 'my, what a lovely color of hair you've got growing down there.'"

Xemnas laughed. He couldn't hold it in, not when Saïx was giving him such bitter lip when he couldn't even properly defend himself. "You were uncomfortable and I sought to take advantage of that. Seemed it worked."

"Take advantage? See why I'm hesitant to let you near me without being able to see?"

"Ah, not too long ago I was in a similar position with _you_. If I remember correctly, you were in my body and made me bathe with you since I didn't trust you. But nothing happened, now did it? Nor the time you ripped open my shower curtain to stare at me."

"We're even in times we've seen each other naked, then. Let's not go over that mark."

"Your shyness is remarkable as ever."

"SHY." Saïx almost sounded offended. "I don't have anything to hide!"

"Then don't fight me on this. You'll feel a thousand times better after bathing. In fact, I'll allow you to do it in my personal tub, that way no one will happen to see you in such a state. Trust me, Saïx. I seek to get you better."

Saïx nastily groaned, knowing he didn't have any fight in him, nor could he really stop Xemnas from doing anything he wanted. This was ridiculous. Embarrassing. Humiliating! The man who made him feel like the world's most worthless creature alive…now offering to bathe him because he was too helpless to do it himself.

He felt ashamed.

"I don't care. Fine."

Xemnas smirked and he helped stand Saïx up, taking him through the hallways and to his room. He had sent everyone else away on missions, as he did every day, so that he could spend most of his time without interruption.

Carefully he directed Saïx to his bathroom and soon turned the water on and added the bath salts that he remembered Saïx liked so much last time. Slowly he turned to the wounded figure, noticing how he shifted from foot to foot uncomfortably as he waited. This was like torture to him…and for some reason Xemnas was a bit glad about that.

He moved toward him and began to undress Saïx, instantly getting a negative reaction from him.

"I can undress myself!"

"My apologies," he replied and smirked once more. "Go ahead, then."

Saïx would have begun but realized how stupid this would look. Xemnas would be watching him strip while he fumbled around with his clothing. He should have just let the Superior do his work. Almost grudgingly he tore away his clothes, nearly losing his balance once if it hadn't been for Xemnas supporting him. Ugh. One day he'd repay him for this. He wasn't sure how, but he would.

"Still the loveliest shade of blue," Xemnas mentioned once Saïx had slipped out of his underwear, only to be met with quite the frown. Oh it was too easy.

"Do you _mind_."

"Disturbing you is simply a part of my duty, Saïx. Besides, don't you find it strange that my words make you uncomfortable?"

"I think it's strange that you say such things—"

"No, I meant that you react to them. Much as if you were…still able to feel emotion."

Saïx didn't think about that. "Oh. Well…" He puzzled about it, crossing his arms over his chest. "Must be…as if it's planted in us. Like a conditioned response."

"Hmm…yes, perhaps it is that. I should see if any of the others have thought on such things as well." Xemnas grabbed Saïx and directed him to the tub. "Step up."

Saïx fumbled a bit in getting in, but once under the water he felt far better than standing around naked for Xemnas. Could his life be any more miserable?

The Superior then came forth and gently removed the gauze from his face, the 'X' shaped wound was very red and swollen looking. He imagined the scar it'd leave would be permanent. Calmly he began to wash Saïx's hair, watching the expressions on his counterpart's face curiously.

"Your hair is still rough," Xemnas mentioned softly.

"I haven't had much time to deal with it," Saïx mumbled. It still felt amazingly nice to have Xemnas massage his scalp, although this time it was with a different set of hands. His touch was still smooth and gentle, dancing onto the sensitive areas and freeing him of any stress and tension he had. Quietly he pondered what it'd feel like to be touched all over in such ways.

"What's on your mind, Saïx? You're always so quiet."

Well. He was currently fantasizing being smothered by the hands of God it seemed, but he wasn't going to say that. "I don't think anything." He immediately regretted saying that. Way to admit he was just sitting here like a bump on a log. As if his brain was only able to begin processing if he was actually moving. Ugh.

"I doubt that. Your facial expressions say otherwise."

Fuck. "I dream about you handling me all over, Superior. You caught me." He did his best to sound as sarcastic as possible and hoped that his face wouldn't twist into some kind of state of panic after admitting such a thing.

"Oh?" Xemnas stated right beside his ear. "Is that what you wish for?" Deep voice rumbling Saïx's entire core.

"I'm joking," Saïx quickly shot back. "Last thing I need is a rub down by you."

Xemnas finished with his hair and smiled. "Why not?"

Did he just ask that? "Because…Superior. That'd be…inappropriate. And hardly worth your time."

"I don't know about that last part, I have spent much of my time taking care of you, but I would not call it a waste. More like a treat. You are always pushing the boundaries, after all, and in the after math I have to admit that perhaps I've been too harsh or going at things in the wrong angle. Maybe you just need something to motivate you to be better. Something special."

Saïx immediately didn't like where this subject was going. It had to be the environment. Being naked, in a tub, with a powerful man's hands on him while they talked about 'needing special motivation' rang alarm bells in his head. Wherever he was going with this would not be for him. It would be for Xemnas. "Oookay. No. I can't do this."

Xemnas watched as Saïx moved, fumbling around to try and find a towel. "Can't do what?" He didn't understand.

"I'm not going to play into your whole…'special treatment' thing. It's not going to happen. Ever. The fact you'd even go there is completely…degrading to me."

The Superior continued to watch him struggle, even try to open his eyes to see what he was doing. "I'm not certain I understand your concerns, Saïx. Degrading to you? Special treatment? What I am suggesting is motivation, not ranking you on a pedestal."

Saïx faced him then, frowning. "You…wait. What are you talking about?"

"Well…that's what I was asking you?" Xemnas questioned Saïx.

Quietly Saïx tried to figure out Xemnas's expression. His vision was still a bit too blurred to tell if he was angry, laughing, or just confused. He honestly hoped it was the last one. "Ah…um. Well. I thought you were…suggesting things."

"Things." Xemnas stated it so loudly it made Saïx frown. "What does that mean?"

"It means I thought you were saying….you were going to…" Saïx sighed. "I thought you were going to say my 'motivation' should stem from being with you. Which sounds utterly asinine the more I think about it. In fact, I don't know why I thought like that. Forget it ever happened."

Xemnas looked completely amused. "You thought I wanted you to sleep with me to help motivate you? Haha! Ah, oh, Saïx, you flatter yourself a bit too much."

Saïx glared at him.

"Don't get offended, but you're really not my type. You're everything I'd hate to be saddled with if I were to look for such pleasures in another person while in this state of half-existence."

He didn't know why it bothered him so much to hear this, but Saïx felt quite worse than he had earlier. What was…so bad about him? "And what exactly am I, Superior?"

"You're rude, snotty, sometimes a bit bratty. You fight over the smallest things, get snappy when things don't go your way…I could really go on and on. And those are only your personality problems."

"Good to know there are physical things you hate about me, too," Saïx bitterly remarked. "I can only imagine what it is you hate about me."

"I simply don't find you very attractive, Saïx."

It felt like a low blow to Saïx, but he kept down the piling feeling of negative self-esteem and went to make his own impact. "Well, Superior, I would have to say I think close to the same about you. I'm not attracted to skin that looks like shoe leather."

Xemnas could have strangled him. He had never felt so insulted in his life. "How fitting, considering your hair looks like the mold on someone's gym socks."

That asshole! "Well your eyes remind me of a bad bowel movement."

_WHAT_. That! OH. He was really starting to get pissed. "And yours remind me of liver disease."

"Glad we're on the same page, then. We are absolutely not compatible together, nor should it ever be tried. Or thought about, honestly."

Xemnas sighed and rolled his eyes. "You were the one contemplating it. If you ask me, you were hoping it was true, that someone would, for once, be infatuated with you. After all, you tried to show the others such things when you were me. Tried to make it look like I would even bother with someone of your low caliber—"

"I get it," Saïx snapped at him. "Back off."

Words like that usually ticked Xemnas off, but instead he was surprised. Was Saïx getting…upset? It would seem so. Perhaps he was being too harsh…trying too hard to sound as if Saïx was meaningless to him. He supposed he hated it when Saïx made bad remarks about him, Saïx must obviously be feeling the same.

Shamefully he cleared his throat and offered an apology. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't be so cruel to you."

"You shouldn't but I guess being an asshole is all you'll ever know," Saïx sniped at him. "Cruel is just what you do. It'll never be anything different. So don't bother trying to cover your words with meaningless apologies. I get that you hate me and I'll always be the lowest and least liked in the Organization." He looked down at the water, trying to see his face with burning eyes. He couldn't make out the shape, but he knew that staring back at him was the wound across his face. "You've already proved that point."

All right…they were rounding into the territory he was expecting to cross at some point. It felt earlier than he was expecting…but Xemnas was prepared to talk it out with Saïx, if the man would listen. Certainly if he was the asshole than Saïx was the obstinate dick. "What makes you think I hate you, Saïx?"

"Isn't it obvious?" He mumbled. "You were completely merciless during our fight. You struck me with intentions to leave behind a lot more than scars and deep wounds. I'm not an idiot, much as you would like to believe I am. You wanted to hurt me so much that I would spend each day regretting challenging you. It wasn't even just for my benefit, but for everyone else as well. You don't want people to oppose you in the slightest. Well, you can wound me all you want, but that doesn't make me a conformist."

Xemnas wished Saïx hadn't said that. It was true he had beaten him and left marks on purpose, to get Saïx _thinking_ before he acted irrationally. And yet here he was admitting it hadn't changed anything. "I am not asking you to conform completely, Saïx, I'm asking you to be on my side."

"I am on your side," he remarked indignantly.

"No, you have been obstinate in every little way."

"No, I simply state what I think about your stupid orders, but that doesn't mean I won't do them."

"Really? I seem to remember you flipping an entire table of paperwork in protest."

"You were treating me like I was too useless to do anything else but that! And in front of everyone that goes to the briefing room. That's just shaming!"

"You've been acting so erroneous I thought some shaming could do you some good."

Saïx scoffed at that. "You're an idiot."

"Perhaps if you just learned to behave a bit better I wouldn't have to badger you in such ways. I wouldn't need to babysit you in all your missions, let alone try to teach you a lesson in obedience. Don't you see? It's not that you're stupid or hate doing things, it's the fact that you're so outspoken in your defiance and your hate for me that it interferes with everything. And if the others were to see you badmouthing me every step you take, it could result in the same coming from them. A loss of respect. And when that happens, no one will want to do these missions. The Organization will crumble into nothingness, and our selves will be lost completely. Is that what you want, Saïx, to disappear?"

Saïx felt bitter but also a bit regretful. He hated being proved wrong. "No."

"Then please take into consideration your part in this group and how you play it. I'm not asking for as much as you're thinking. Yes, I would love it if you were just as nice and obedient as the others, but I know that isn't going to happen the more I am around you. But I do ask in the least that you keep your words in check around the others and to accept missions more willingly. And to put forth as much effort as them. You don't have to like it, but you still have to get it done."

There was silence between them as Saïx kept his eyes downcast. He could see his outline in the water a bit better now, but his eyes still hurt to keep open. "You thought that message would somehow come across by trying to gouge out my eyes?"

Xemnas let out a slightly exasperated noise. "No, I wasn't trying to gouge out your eyes. I was just…furious. I overreacted."

"Oh, good to know my suffering is because the Superior can't keep himself in check," Saïx bitterly mentioned. "You treat me like a child and you're still one yourself."

Xemnas glared at him, "I'll pretend you never said that. Now either wash up or I'm going to do it for you, and after this discussion I can't promise it'll be gentle."

"My hands aren't broken, I can do it myself."

"Fine. You have ten minutes." Xemnas rose and moved out the door, leaving it cracked slightly in case Saïx were to call for help. The last thing he heard was 'asshole.' At least he was _very_ certain that's what Saïx said. Oh he could show him what an asshole really was like…

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Saïx heard the door creak open and he turned his attention to where he could see Xemnas. His vision was getting much better, and now only the very fine details were a bit blurred. "I'm done."

Xemnas stepped forth and unplugged the tub, helping Saïx out afterward. "How are your eyes?" He didn't sound as if they had even talked in the last half hour. More as if he was back to business.

"Everything is still blurry," Saïx lied. "I'll probably never see again."

"Oh please," Xemnas chided. "That is doubtful." He grabbed a towel and began to dry Saïx off.

It had worked. Saïx assumed if he pretended he was incapable of seeing that Xemnas would just take over. And he was actually being quite gentle with the way he glided his hands over him. For having a towel between, it still felt like Xemnas was just pawing at him without one.

He was probably going to regret faking his blindness.

"I grabbed you some clothes. I want you back in bed once you're dressed."

Saïx was given the towel and he began to rough it through his hair, watching Xemnas the entire time as he brought in a pair of clothing. It looked to be from his room, so he assumed Xemnas must have gone over there while he had bathed. At least he wouldn't be wearing Xemnas's clothes. Last time the man made him leave them behind!

"Do you need help dressing?" Xemnas asked, eyes bolting back toward him.

Momentarily Saïx felt taken aback and wondered if he wanted that kind of help. Then again, if he were blind, how could he tell which way his clothes were facing? "Yes." He kept it simple.

Xemnas grabbed up Saïx's underwear and came over, bending down. "Then lift your leg."

If Xemnas ever found out he was faking, Saïx imagined he was going to be in a world of pain. More so than he already was in. But he couldn't help his behavior. Xemnas was being an asshole…therefore he thought that taking advantage of his kindness was the subtlest thing he could do against the man.

He stepped into his underwear obediently and felt Xemnas glide it up his legs, past knees, to his thighs, and then smacking it into place around his privates. If he dared to think it, he thought he spied a smile on Xemnas's face.

This process continued for his pants and long-sleeved shirt, though Saïx felt as if it was a thousand times less awkward than the first piece of clothing. After adorning some socks, he moved past Xemnas to look in the mirror, hoping to comb down his mane a bit when he spotted the nasty wound on his face.

"My God." He looked horrible! The pale skin he was so used to, the relatively flawless features he boasted with glares and cocked eyebrows. Now it was just…encompassed by what Xemnas had done to him.

A beacon to everyone on how a person would be treated if they ever defied Xemnas.

A reminder…to him. Every day from now until his death…that he was to never forget Xemnas's lesson.

"It's not so bad," Xemnas mentioned, "Though I should cover it again. You don't want it to dry out, it'll feel worse."

"I can do it myself," Saïx snapped as he turned to leave.

"You should let me do it—"

"I'm not _blind_," Saïx harped back at him. Then silence hit them. _Shit_. He WAS supposed to be blind. "I mean…figuratively speaking."

"Wait, how did you see it in the mirror, then? Let alone see the door," Xemnas mentioned, since Saïx's hand was on the doorknob. "You _can_ see now?"

Saïx noticed the look of surprise to frustration cross Xemnas's face. Now would be a good time to get out of there. "Thanks for the bath," Saïx quickly replied as he headed out the door.

He didn't get far, not with Xemnas after him, anyway. He was stopped immediately outside the bathroom door and had his back pinned to the wall. Orange eyes blazed into his. "You made me towel you off and dress you just now."

"Well you're always so keen to help, I thought it'd be rude to refuse."

Xemnas smirked, though it looked like a twisted one. "I think you're playing games with me, Saïx. Are you making me do these things because you like the attention from me?" He stepped closer, now successfully enclosing Saïx to the wall. There was no escape. Xemnas's face was only a few inches from his, and those eyes never changed their course. "Is that what you wish from me? For me to bathe you…" His index finger traced down Saïx's nose as he spoke. "To undress you?" And soon stopped on his lips. "To put you back in your clothing?" He allowed another smile to tug onto his lips. "Did you enjoy how I touched you? I'm sure you wished there had been no towel there. Am I right, Saïx?"

Saïx finally pushed the hand away from his lips. God, he didn't know what he was thinking right now. He just felt uncomfortable. "No, Superior, I think you're misinterpreting me. It wasn't some kind of clever ploy. I'm just lazy."

"Hmm. And yet not lazy enough for me to cover that mark of yours."

Saïx wondered what his point was. "Well if you're not tired of me taking advantage of your kindness, I suppose you could do it, though I promise it's not because I'm trying to subtly hit on you."

Xemnas chuckled at that, "I suppose now that you've set the ground rules I will be able to peacefully cover your wound without thinking you're doing so to get in my pants."

God, he wasn't even the one who _thought_ like that. It was all Xemnas! He was certain the man only did it just to make him feel worse.

After sitting down, Xemnas got some ointment and bandages and fixed Saïx up once more. It was as if the awkward situation had never happened. Yet Saïx couldn't help but think about how Xemnas dragged his finger against his nose and onto his lips. That was…such a seductive technique. Why had he done that?

Then Saïx wondered if…maybe Xemnas was hoping he had done it all out of desire for him? Maybe…that's how Xemnas wanted things to go, but he didn't want to be the first to go after him. Maybe Xemnas didn't want to be rejected.

Ugh. He honestly hoped this wasn't true. He didn't know how to react if Xemnas really was interested in him. If Xemnas had feelings he needed to just…say it. He at least wasn't going to flirt back and be the first to make a move. After all, if he did, that's when he'd find out that Xemnas wasn't interested at all. And probably would be mortified that Saïx would even act like a flirt in the first place.

Besides. The guy damaged his face. How could he possibly be attracted to Xemnas after that? _And_ he said that he wasn't physically attractive. No doubt the scar made it worse.

Why was he even contemplating this…?

"Thank you," Saïx mumbled when Xemnas finished and he got up, prepared to leave. He was held back though, and he turned his attention to the hand that rested on his arm. Xemnas's orange eyes stared back into his. "Superior?"

"Get some rest."

It just seemed weird that he had stopped him to say that, of all things. "Right." Saïx slipped out of his grasp and walked away, once more hiding in the confines of his room.

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Each day Xemnas came to visit him. Several times, actually, and even bringing him food so they could eat together. Saïx would have felt strange about it all, but Xemnas made it seem as if nothing was wrong. So…he did not think further on the ordeal. Xemnas was just being nice, for once, and that was all.

As the week came to an end, Saïx expected to see Xemnas in his doorway, hollering at him to get back to work. Instead…he was met with nothing. He had even waited an extra twenty minutes for the man before getting out of bed and going to the Superior's room. Where was he?

Once inside he found the office area empty. Taking himself into Xemnas's bedroom he didn't immediately pick up on anything, the place was quiet and dark. But then he spotted the lump in bed. Ha! Did he oversleep? Now this was comical.

"Superior," Saïx remarked as he proudly came over to the side of the bed. "Why are you still in bed?"

Xemnas lifted his pillow off of his head to glare at Saïx. "I caught something dreadful."

Saïx's eyes widened at hearing him. He sounded awful. Like he had been gargling rocks all night. And he looked like he hadn't slept in ages. Even his glorious hair looked a bit damped in its spirits today. "How exactly did that happen? I didn't know we could get sick."

"I have deduced that it must have happened during one of my visits to a different world. I should have taken better precautions." He rubbed his temple achingly. "Of course I'd be the first one to catch something deadly." Xemnas coughed and it sounded like several things were coming out of his lungs, none of which would be pretty to see if it did come up.

"Ah…uh…well, Superior, considering you're bedridden perhaps I can help you? You're the only one who gives out missions—"

"Hmm…yes." Xemnas sat up more and pointed at his nightstand. "Take those folders and hand them out to the others for me, will you? When you come back I'll have you write up tomorrow's."

Saïx took up the files without hesitation, but slowed as he turned toward the door. "When…I come back?"

"Yes? I haven't given you a mission yet, I was uncertain how your wound would fair in the corridors of darkness without aide."

Saïx would have complained but decided beating on the sick Superior would be rather low of him. "All right, Superior, I'll come back."

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Zexion, Xigbar, Xaldin, Lexaeus, and Vexen all stared at Saïx strangely.

"The Superior is under the weather, so I'm delivering these for him. Just do as you normally do." Saïx handed each folder out to the respective member.

Axel was the only one not staring at him, and he took his folder leisurely. "Ugh. Headcount again. I hate counting." He glanced at Xigbar's folder to see what he had gotten for a mission, but found the man was a bit distracted. He slowly turned his attention onto Saïx, as that was what everyone was staring at. "What are we all looking at?"

Saïx suddenly felt the heat come to his skin. They weren't looking at him. They were _staring_. He could feel the slowly forming scar on his face as if it were a big bug on him. It made him uncomfortable being under those gazes, knowing they all thought the same thing.

"Good luck," Saïx quickly stated before he turned away and walked off. Assholes. They all were assholes.

He stopped at the kitchen to grab something to eat and contemplated what the Superior would want. Something light, he imagined, if he was sick. He picked up numerous things and set them onto a tray, even grabbing some orange juice as he imagined that would help boost his immune system.

Once back into Xemnas's room he set the tray onto the nightstand. "Everyone got their missions and understands them. I brought you something to eat. I couldn't decide what you'd probably be hungry for, if anything…so I grabbed a few things."

Xemnas sat up once again and looked at the tray of goods. "Hmm, well this is quite the nice selection. I feel spoiled."

Saïx waited for Xemnas to pick out what he wanted before grabbing up one of the unwanted items, munching on it quietly. Seemed he'd be taking care of Xemnas instead of the other way around. "After breakfast do you need me to bathe you, Superior?" Saïx sassed, obviously just harassing him because he could.

Xemnas smirked at that invitation. Well! "My, so kind of you to offer. I was thinking I'd have to order you to do it."

Saïx hesitantly toyed with his food. "Wait, are we being serious?"

"Oh I don't know, Saïx, aren't we?"

"No, this is actually confusing me."

Xemnas chuckled at that before shaking his head, "I think the last thing I need is for you to bathe me. I'm not blind. Though it seems blindness hasn't stopped you from taking advantage of my kindness, especially when it comes to being bathed." Xemnas shrugged. "Maybe I should make you do it."

Saïx nervously laughed, "I don't know if you can force me to bathe you, Superior. It'd be more work than it's worth, and you should save your energy."

"Oh I'm sure I could find ways," Xemnas waved his hand as if shooing the topic away. "Now stop fantasizing about me and let's get on to a more serious subject. If I'm going to be bedridden I'll need you to help me."

"With what?" Saïx tried to ignore the former insult by focusing on the current issue at hand.

"The missions, prepping them, sorting them, that kind of thing. Can you do that for me? I promise it's not as hard as it sounds." He coughed a bit, doing his best to clear his throat. "Hopefully I am well enough to look over them while I'm stuck here, otherwise I'll be behind for days."

Saïx didn't think that going over reports would be that important. He honestly didn't get what Xemnas was looking for. "Ah…I could go over them for you, Superior, if you think that's possible."

Xemnas brightened up at that, "It would help immensely. I just need a good summary of what's inside. I typically write it out on the cover of the folder, that way when it's filed away I can flip through what we already have with ease."

Oh boy. Well. He could do that. At least Saïx assumed he could… "All right. Sounds…simple enough."

"You can work in here if you like, or at my desk. Whatever suits you best."

"I'll stay in here, in case I have questions." Since he had never done paperwork before in his life. Saïx gathered up the folders and started to sort them out as asked. Each in their own little pile depending on what world it was.

At some point Xemnas had fallen back to sleep while Saïx read through the reports. It was extremely long-winded, depending on the person who wrote them. Xigbar and Axel probably put in the least amount of detail, meanwhile the other members put in way too much. By the time he'd read through what they put, he wasn't even sure how to summarize it, and so he'd have to read through it again. After doing this with four files he aggravatingly rubbed his temple. There had to be a simpler way to do this. And just like that he realized that to make it easier, but to keep the details intact, they could actually start putting them in a format with prompted questions, rather than asking everyone to just write at will.

Saïx found a scratch piece of paper and scrawled down his idea before returning to the stack of folders.

Oy.

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When Xemnas woke up he found it was quite late. Where had the entire day gone?

His eyes traveled to Saïx, who had fallen asleep while on the job. He noticed the folders looked to be sorted rather well, though he wasn't sure how far he had gotten or if he was done. He did find it funny at how Saïx was sleeping, bent over with his head and arms on the bed and yet still sitting in the chair he had propped there earlier.

"Saïx?" Xemnas snaked his hand over to brush his fingers through his companion's hair.

Saïx opened his eyes momentarily, but closed them quickly again. "Not right now, Superior," he mumbled and moved to cover his face.

"I can't imagine sleeping like that to be very comfortable. Why not join me?"

Saïx stared at him for a moment, trying to register what he just said. "As in get in your bed?"

"Well yes, that would make sense to sleep in a bed, wouldn't it? Besides, I might need you. Best to have you close, hmm?"

He supposed that made sense. He was too tired to disagree. Saïx put the folder that was still in his lap on the nightstand and he got into bed. Oho…he forgot how comfortable the Superior's bed was in comparison to his. "Good night, Superior."

Xemnas smirked at that, "Good night, Saïx."

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Thanks for reading, please review!

Next chapter coming soon.


	4. Chapter 4

Another chapter. The juice you've all been waiting for has arrived. Enjoy!

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Saïx had stayed in Xemnas's room for about a week, taking care of the Superior as well as handing out missions and going over the previous ones carefully. It felt almost natural…and he had to admit he was enjoying doing the paperwork. It felt better to sit around and talk to Xemnas about some of the other findings from the mission reports than it was to actually go out and do them. And it seemed Xemnas was extremely talkative and agreeable in discussing the fascinations of them.

Saïx had entered into Xemnas's room gingerly after handing out the reports, as he did every morning, and settled a tray of food at the nightstand. Typically he'd find Xemnas lying there waiting to hear how things were going. It was always casual talk at the start, as if they were running a formal business.

Today he did not find Xemnas in bed.

He heard the bathroom door creak and he turned to discover the Superior had taken a shower and was not wearing anything but a towel.

"Oh, I wasn't expecting you back that quickly," Xemnas stated calmly as he had another towel in his hands to dry his hair.

Saïx wasn't sure what he should do. Not look? Well at least he wasn't naked. Then again, he had already seen plenty of that before…

"Uh, I didn't think it ever took me very long to hand out the missions."

"I suppose not?" Xemnas came closer and nodded at the ones in Saïx's hands. "Are those yesterday's?"

"Yes, they are. I…will go over them if you want me to?"

"Read one to me, will you?"

Saïx propped open Axel's, not entirely certain why Xemnas wanted to listen to something so boring as this, but he supposed the man had desired to cover the awkwardness. Or at least he thought it was awkward. "Axel's report was about a place called… Atlantica."

As he began to read Xemnas got closer and looked over his shoulder to follow along, still gently drying his hair. Saïx hadn't necessarily been aware of his presence until he started to stumble while reading. He shot his eyes toward Xemnas, finding him so close, if he were to move he'd bump right into him. "Um."

"My apologies for making you screw up," Xemnas remarked casually before he finished toweling his hair. "Though I have to say, you're acting quite strangely, Saïx."

"Me?" Saïx asked surprised. "You're the one walking around naked."

"I'm not naked," Xemnas replied. "I have a towel on."

"Yeah?" Saïx grabbed his towel and yanked it off. "Well, now you're naked."

Xemnas looked almost flustered at that. "What is your _problem_? Give me that back!"

"Why? I think I find this rather funny."

"As if I need someone to see me standing around here without being decent!"

"Everyone's away on missions, Superior, you could go outside and no one would ever know."

There was silence then and Xemnas neatly put his hands on his hips. "I could do…anything and no one would ever know, couldn't I?"

Saïx nodded, "That's what I said."

"I could order you to do things you probably wouldn't want to do…but since no one is around, you probably wouldn't mind complying."

His stomach dropped to the floor. Saïx didn't know what that meant, but he wasn't sure why he was being met with that kind of demand. "Are you feeling all right?"

"I have…actually never felt better, Saïx. This past week has been…wonderful, I've enjoyed it, spending time with you. I think I've come to realize that you don't actually disrespect me…you just sound sarcastic because that's how you talk. I've been thinking about it all the wrong way…"

"We have to have this conversation while you're naked?" Saïx questioned his sanity.

"Well, my next step from here might involve staying naked." Xemnas smirked at him, and watched as Saïx's frown increased.

"I thought we had this discussion where you said 'oh, Saïx, you remind me of rotted food.'"

"Yes, and you said I was something like 'burnt toast.'"

"Or beef jerky. And no, I said shoe leather," Saïx corrected him.

"Yes, well I said moldy gym socks for you, not rotted food, but close enough."

Saïx glared, "Yeah, and that made it rather obvious where we stand on the whole…situation."

"No, that made it obvious _then_ but this is now."

"That hasn't really changed," Saïx replied rather annoyed before he quietly spoke up. "Has it?"

"I've been contemplating things between us…" Xemnas shrugged his shoulders as he tried to find the words, knowing it had to be just right for Saïx to agree to anything. "I am growing to enjoy your sass. I think it's come to the point that if you hadn't come back to my room, I'd be tempted to go to your room each day again just to see more of you. I know we can't actually…desire like that. But it's deep in me, and like you said that one time…maybe it's…programmed into us from the start? A conditioned response?"

Saïx felt like he was falling into a pit of lava. This wasn't how he expected his morning to go. His stupid words had now taken a turn for the worse against him! "I didn't think that deeply into it, Xemnas. I mean. Come on. Isn't this kind of foolish to be wishing for?"

"Is it?" Xemnas stepped closer to him, eyes staring down into Saïx's. "If your body desired to be with another's, is that foolish? Is it not worth attempting?"

Saïx swallowed hard and couldn't look away from him. "How do I know this isn't some kind of…ploy against me."

"What makes you say that?" Xemnas laughed.

"You've made plenty of threats about silencing me. This could very well be…blackmail of sorts. That you'd expose me to the others if I don't act better."

The Superior chuckled and shook his head, "Oh, now why would I want you to act better? I just admitted to you I like your reactions."

"Okay, then maybe you'd like to hear that I think you're crazy. And that this is a stupid idea."

The abrupt change in tune made Xemnas frowned, "Saïx."

"It is, and it's not worth pursuing. If you're desperate, go take a cold shower, it'll help."

"That is not going to happen," Xemnas replied.

"Neither is _this_," Saïx waved his finger between the two of them. "You'd have to take me against my will."

"Then I will," Xemnas remarked cruelly. "Because I have more questions and they can only be answered through these actions, and you just happen to be my target."

"Oh, so now I'm 'convenient.' What happened to the 'you're my one and only' talk?"

"Well, I was hoping you'd be so infatuated with the compliment you'd give in. I have underestimated you again, Saïx." The Superior obviously looked triumphant in his moment of honesty. "I still find you terribly unattractive, Saïx. In fact, rotted food is a good way to describe you."

Saïx wanted to punch him so badly! How could he turn on him like that in two seconds? All because he wasn't going to give in to him. "Burnt toast really does suit you, too."

"Yes, well, I am still a well respected piece of toast. That is something you'll never face, Saïx. Not with how you look these days, anyway."

Now THAT was low. "If you're trying to upset me by jabbing at my looks, Superior, you'll have to look elsewhere because I'm not going to give you such pleasures."

"Oh trust me, hearing you cry was enough of a pleasure in that aspect."

"You're a downright rotten asshole," Saïx snapped at him finally, no longer able to keep up the witty banter and going straight for the insults. "And I honestly hope the Organization sees you as the fraud you are and bails out at the least opportune moment, because a dick like you deserves to have everything you worked hard for torn asunder."

Xemnas glared at that, "You erroneous child, if the Organization leaves me it would only mean your demise."

"Better than being under your flightless wings," Saïx jabbed back.

In a sudden movement Xemnas had grabbed Saïx and pulled him into a deep kiss, holding him so tightly against him there was no way he could fight. Their tongues twisted together powerfully, battling words had turned to a deep fight of the tongues. It was hot and heavy for quite some time, until they pulled from each other, both nearly surprised at what had just happened. They were both breathing hard, and Saïx wiped at his bottom lip momentarily in shock. Had that just happened? They were at each other's throats with hate and suddenly…they were kissing? It didn't seem right to Saïx, and yet…

"Your kissing is subpar," Xemnas insulted him.

Saïx glared. Did he never know when to quit? "Strange, yours is like trying to be passionate with a dog."

Xemnas laughed at that and pushed Saïx down on his bed hard, yanking at his clothing like an animal. "You would know what it's like to be with a dog, wouldn't you?"

"Hardly, but given how you're acting I'm certain you have."

Xemnas stopped a moment to give him a daring look, as if he pushed it almost too far, but then continued by releasing Saïx from his clothes completely. His hand immediately grabbed onto his cock and he felt Saïx tense. "What's wrong, Saïx, nervous?"

"No, I'm preparing for the worst considering that's as good as you get," Saïx snapped.

"Oh, you are so bitter." His hand began to toy with his balls and soon moved up onto his shaft to jerk him off. "But I'm going to make you do all the work, Saïx. I can tell you want to."

"Then we'll be here all day," Saïx commented back, though a bit breathy this time around. Xemnas's hand was indeed working a strange magic on him that he had not felt in a very long time. He wanted to relax, but it was hard to when he didn't want to give in to Xemnas so easily. He didn't want to give him that kind of pleasure. In fact, he didn't know why he was doing this at all!

Xemnas leaned in and kissed Saïx once more, hand working harder on his partner until he felt him go erect. At that he stopped, finding himself already quite prepared! "Well, if you're not going to do the work, I will, but I'll make sure it's not very pleasurable for you. So you can either choose…ride me or roll over on your stomach and take it like the dog that you are."

Saïx didn't know what would be worse, but then he realized that if he just had Xemnas at his back, the man would probably be very merciless. He had experienced his cruelty before and he didn't want to be succumbed to that again. "Fine, I'll do the work."

Xemnas smirked, "Good, then you best prepare me well." He grabbed Saïx by his hair and forced him at his cock. The Diviner didn't have much time to think as the foreign object was already in his mouth, large and full. It hurt his jaw for awhile until the sting died down, and he focused on prep work instead of Xemnas's chide remarks that he could do better.

After several moments of Saïx rubbing his tongue against Xemnas and curling his mouth as tightly as possible to get a better reaction out of him, Xemnas had pulled him away. "Get on me." It was such a demand, Saïx obliged by crawling atop Xemnas, but hadn't connected quite yet.

Maybe it was just nerves, but hovering over him like this made him wonder at what point did he decide this was suddenly acceptable for him to do. He didn't even like Xemnas. Xemnas didn't even like him! What drove him to this point to accept Xemnas's demands…And he had to wonder why Xemnas demanded it in the first place.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Saïx asked, nearly breaking the heat of the moment.

"In times like these, Saïx, it's best not to ask questions until afterward," Xemnas replied before he grabbed Saïx's hips and guided him downward. He slid into Saïx with some effort, and at last Saïx was sitting on him completely. "I'm expecting you to make this worthwhile, otherwise I'll have you back for more."

"Nothing is ever worthy enough to you, Xemnas," Saïx mentioned as he braced himself. It was a strange sensation to be so full like that, practically unable to move without feeling a pulse of sensation. But that was the point, wasn't it? He began to move, rocking slowly at first, getting an understanding of Xemnas this way. The man seemed to enjoy it when he leaned in further, and so he took advantage of that, quickening his pace more and more.

As Saïx sped up, Xemnas had a harder time not participating. Soon enough he was thrusting his hips in motion to Saïx's and pushing the man down harder with his hand to the small of his back. They continued this for quite some time, heavy breathing echoed with sounds of flesh together. It was carnal yet passionate in senses.

Then Xemnas felt the burning heat shoot through his groin, and the immediate ascension of feelings take over him. It wasn't an emotional thing. It was physical, like rocketing oneself into the air and hitting the 'free-falling' point.

He moaned at that, feeling the sensors spasm with joy as Saïx kept up his work. Suddenly he released, and all the physical motions were amplified by a thousand, drizzling down into a spiral of tenderness.

"Stop," Xemnas hissed, breathing still labored at that. He felt tired! Yet good…as if he had finally gotten something he had desired for a long time.

Saïx had been so close to orgasm when Xemnas demanded him to discontinue. He had, not entirely sure why he listened to him, and felt his own body ebb into yearning. He wanted to be satisfied. "Superior?"

A moment of silence hit them before Xemnas gently pushed Saïx away, "You can leave now."

Just like that? Saïx felt aggravated and unappreciated. He slipped off of Xemnas, the last of his yearning being pulled away, and he began to put his clothes back on. Was this just a test? Did Xemnas just use him?

"Your mission is on my desk."

Saïx went off to Xemnas's office. That asshole. Got what he wanted and then threw him back to the grind. He found the mission folder there and he picked it up, glancing inside.

Olympus?

Fuuuuuck. He thought Xemnas would never send him there again! He really was an asshole!

But he was too pissed to actually go back and argue. He instead went to work, hoping that he died rather than survive another moment in that God forsaken world.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

He was rather certain he was dead. Wasn't he?

Saïx dragged himself out of the corridors of darkness. An entire day at Olympus. He was burnt to a crisp, sore as ever, and probably had a rash from the amount of times his body made contact with the stony ground.

He didn't even make it onto his bed. He had tried, but he tripped and smashed to the floor. But the floor was nice and cool, so he decided not to move from the face down position he currently held.

Ah.

Saïx could have stayed there for hours without moving, it was such a glorious feeling. But that would be too good, wouldn't it? The door could be heard opening and he internally hated his life. "Go away," he mumbled grumpily. "I am not in the mood to deal with morons right now."

"Is that what I am?" The familiar voice made Saïx regret not looking before speaking. "A moron?" Xemnas's familiar boot came into view. Saïx looked all the way up him to find a devious smirk on his face.

"I really hope you're not back for seconds."

"Hmmm…I was thinking dessert, honestly. A nice blueberry pie."

"Do I look like I fucking bake?" Saïx snidely remarked, still not moving from his spot.

"You do looked baked. Well done, in fact."

"Fuck you."

Xemnas bent down and yanked Saïx to sit up, propping him against his bed frame. "Perhaps that's what I intended to do right now?"

Saïx glared, "Uh, Superior, I'm all sweaty and gross. And burnt. But mostly sweaty."

Xemnas laughed, "How do you know that's not how I wanted it to be? Sweaty and disgusting?"

"Because we're talking about you," Saïx complained. "Mr. Perfect." With an excessive grunt and eye roll, he continued. "Anyway, don't you think this is a bad habit to be starting? Can't you chill for a week?"

"Is that what you want? A week?"

What he wanted? Since when did that ever matter! "Yes. A week," Saïx replied, somewhere between sarcastic and serious. "Maybe by then I won't have my skin peeling off of my body in droves?"

Xemnas leaned closer to him, lips centimeters away from Saïx's. "Then a week it is. And then I expect you in my room again."

Saïx felt the sensation hovering over his lips, how it practically hurt to have that concentration of nerves tensing for his touch, but then not ever retrieve it. He was gone before he knew it, and Saïx took in what he had said. A week and then he was to be back in his bedroom.

What the hell did he get himself involved with? No, Xemnas was just…crazy. In a week the guy would be awkwardly trying to avoid him, right? Right.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

"Ho damn, what happened to you?" Axel laughed as he saw Saïx for what felt like forever, and for once not because he was handing out mission reports. They were lounging around together, the rest of the Organization members, when the crispy but well showered figure had appeared to join them for supper. He never did anything like that.

"Olympus happened," Saïx bitterly remarked as he sunk into a chair. Holy shit, it hurt to exist.

Lexaeus snorted at that.

Saïx glared over at him, "Don't even start, Hulkules! That little freak tried to kill me. And nearly dying to his demi-god friend wasn't on the top of my list of things to do in my life. You suggesting it as training was like saying 'oh, getting snake bites is actually the best way to prevent being poisoned.' Fucking ass."

Xigbar slowly started to grin at that. "Tell us what you really thing, Saïx."

"I think I'm dead," he whined and melted back into his chair.

Vexen stared at him, not sure if he wanted to bother having a conversation with him or not, but at last decided if he didn't speak up now, he probably would never get the chance to. "Why are you out here? You never eat with us."

Saïx glanced over at him, noticing they were all waiting for him to answer. "What, am I no longer invited to join?"

Xaldin shook his head, "I wouldn't say that, but lately we've noticed you've been keeping up with the Superior instead. We thought you were trying to go for better things."

"Does this look like I'm doing better?" Saïx snapped at him.

Axel shook his head.

"Exactly."

"Whoaa-aa!" Zexion let out quite the strange noise and straightened up, immediately alarming all the others. As Saïx still lounged in his chair, everyone had seemed to take a stronger interest in their food, eating as if it was their last meal. Before he could ask, Xemnas had stepped into the area to look them over.

"Superior, good to see you," Xigbar mentioned with a mouthful of spaghetti.

"Hmm," Xemnas remarked back, not even giving him a full word.

"Did you need something from us, Superior?" Zexion asked pleasantly as he immediately took a drink, though it looked almost as if someone else was forcing him to down it.

"Simply ensuring you all made it back in one piece." His eyes flashed over toward Saïx and a smirk danced on his face. "The missions will only be getting harder, I hope you've all been training when you're not doing missions."

Xaldin nodded, "Of course, Superior, it would be foolish not to."

Xemnas laid his eyes back on Saïx. "Finished eating already?"

Saïx irritably looked at him, "I just saw you twenty minutes ago and I'm freshly showered. No. I haven't eaten yet, unless you expect me to do that while bathing."

"Always in a bad mood, aren't you?" Xemnas noted.

"I wonder why. Some moron sent me out to die under the aid of a hairy-assed man."

Silence hit everyone. Zexion choked on his drink.

"Merely…weeding out the weaklings, Saïx. Did you need someone to kiss you to make it all better?" Xemnas harassed him.

Several people exchanged glances, unsure if that was just a funny insult to Saïx's pride or some kind of shaming thing that one of them would get roped into. They all hoped for the former.

"Well if you're offering, I'll bend over and you can kiss my ass."

Xigbar nearly spit up spaghetti, which had caused Vexen to snarl and snatch away his food in hopes that whatever was flowing out of Xigbar wouldn't get on his precious delicacies.

"Strange place to be having aches and pains, Saïx," Xemnas replied casually.

"Only when I'm around you," Saïx fought back. Then paused. "Wait, you were implying something else." Were they referring back to sex? Was this happening in front of _everyone_?

"WELL NOW," Xigbar spoke up, "I've never heard of the Superior making implied remarks like that before, Saïx! Don't go puttin' words in his mouth."

"Yes, Saïx, that was very disgusting of you to say," Xemnas backed up his defense, even though he was clearly enjoying this.

"Whatever," Saïx grumbled, "I know what _you_ meant."

"I am merely concerned for you well-being," he replied back.

"Uh, then why send me to Olympus? That's like saying 'You did a great job' and then giving a student a failing grade."

"I think you're blowing your training out of proportion."

"If I recollect correctly, Olympus wasn't one of your most graceful moments, Superior."

Everyone swallowed and looked over at Xemnas, and though they were curious what kind of experiences Xemnas had there, no one would ever dare to ask what happened. At that point, Xemnas's eyebrow twitched. How dare Saïx even bring up such a memory! "I'm surprised you remember anything of that trip, considering your face was in the dirt most of the time we were there."

"I particularly remember you whining and saying 'he's not looking, let's LEAVE.'"

"If I had waited any longer to leave, you wouldn't have been able to walk, and I'm not going to carry your worthless ass through a corridor of darkness."

"PFF," Saïx made such a fit of noises. "If it's so worthless, I don't see why you spent a good twenty minutes bandaging it up on the previous mission."

Xemnas sighed, "You were so aggravatingly loud, if I hadn't, I'm certain the other worlds would have heard you. Last thing I need is everyone to know you're an idiot who picks fights with people who are far stronger than you."

"Oh yeah, I'm sure it was _only_ that. I remember you remarking about my _front_ area during all of that."

Xigbar and Xaldin glanced at each other. Oh man. What was happening here? Axel didn't mention that. Or was it after he had left the bathroom?

Oh lord. He was going there. In front of everyone. This was just…well, he could tell everyone was uncomfortable about the subject. But Xemnas wasn't going to back down. In fact, he was still finding this humorous. "You mean when I said 'wow, it's microscopic?'"

Xigbar totally lost it. He hadn't expected Xemnas, of all people, to say such a thing. And when Xigbar started to laugh, it got Axel and Xaldin started. Zexion could only smile, but Lexaeus and Vexen stayed quiet, not entirely certain who to take seriously anymore.

Saïx glared, "That's not what you said." He was defeated at his own game!

"You know I only mean well, Saïx. If you're going to be in poor humor, you should go to bed."

Axel smirked at that, "Did Xemnas just tell Saïx to go to his room for throwing a fit?"

"He did," Vexen mused.

"I'm not throwing a fit," Saïx fought back, obviously now in a worse mood than he had started in coming in there.

"You kind of were," Xigbar mentioned calmly, though obviously just as cheeky as everyone else.

"Fine," Saïx snapped, "I'll go blow a gasket somewhere else!" He got up and left the room. It wasn't exactly his most effective method of dealing with everyone. In fact, he felt like he had cheated himself of quite a few good punch lines and snarky jabs at the others. But he felt rather hurt, for some reason. Maybe it was the fact that Xemnas was partaking in harassing him in front of the others…and they all joined in! He was being ganged up on and he hated it.

He went to his room and hulled himself up in there. His stomach growled in hunger, but he ignored it in favor of staying out of everyone's way. After all…he clearly was just a nuisance around here.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

Saïx awoke rather wearily. When had he fallen asleep? What time was it?

He could feel Xemnas's presence in his room. In fact, he could see him standing there, glaring down at him in disappointment. That exact look he gave him when he had destroyed his face…

"Is there something you want, Superior," he coldly remarked while sitting up. Yesterday's time with him washed back over him, from the unforgiving mission to the unsatisfactory sex.

"You have a job, Saïx, and I expect you to do it." Saïx felt Xemnas jab the mission folders harshly into his chest. "Get these to everyone and quickly. Tomorrow I expect you to come get these from my desk instead of forcing me to drop them off to you."

"Since when was this my official job?" He picked up the folders and rudely pushed past Xemnas to throw them on his desk.

"It's been your job for quite awhile now." Xemnas stepped forth and yanked Saïx to face him. "You can pamper yourself later, drop these off immediately."

"Back off," Saïx snapped at him and pushed him away. Not exactly his brightest move, but he was tired of the harassment he was receiving. "I'll get there when I get there."

"_Saïx_," the Superior warned. His tone said it all, that he was on the edge of making things a lot worse for the Diviner if he chose to pursue such an attitude.

But Saïx couldn't be thrown off his course. Once he started something, it was hard for him to quit. "What? I'm going to get ready. If you stopped interrupting me, I could get done and get the missions to the others in a timely manner."

Xemnas finally gave up and he took the folders back. "Forget it. You can stay here and be worthless as usual." He left before Saïx had time to defend himself, which really aggravated him. What an asshole he could be!

No, he should forget Xemnas, the guy was probably being an ass because of what occurred yesterday between them. Not his fault, it all was Xemnas's idea.

Then it dawned on him. Maybe Xemnas was being rude because he had told him to lay off for awhile? Was that it? Ugh, what if it was…? Was he going to constantly be rudely treated for something like this? Until he gave himself to the Superior?

For a moment he felt obligated to go and throw himself at the man's feet, but then again…he remembered Xemnas's hurtful comments from yesterday. Bantering at him like he was a child. Constantly insulting him. Why should he pair himself up with someone like that?

Yet…there was a slight infatuation with the idea. Something about it, was it the interaction? Was it because of Xemnas? He desired it. Or maybe it was that 'programmed' response they talked about.

Saïx brushed his teeth quietly while thinking over what he should do when his gaze settled to the mirror. The large 'X' on his face glowered back at him.

It was as if all of the shame in what happened weighed down on him. He had been made an example by Xemnas to the others. Then he went around and mocked him before them, physically driving him off with his words. He was the black sheep of the group.

Xemnas wasn't using him because there was anything there, nor probably for the love of the act. Clearly the Superior just wanted Saïx to be lower than everyone else. And he played right into that! He felt like a fool. Why was he so gullible? So stupid?

As he finished brushing his teeth he headed straight for Xemnas's office. He didn't know what he would do once he got there, but he had a lot on his mind…a lot that felt as if it could be answered once he saw him again.

It must have been long enough that Xemnas had already given out the missions as he was at his desk going over reports when Saïx had entered. The Superior glanced up, but gave him no special interest after that and soon resumed looking at the folders before him.

After several minutes passed Saïx finally grew impatient. He had a lot on his mind and he wasn't going to be ignored like this. He snatched away the folder Xemnas was working on and tossed it on the floor.

"Saïx," Xemnas seethed with hatred. "I'm not playing games with you right now."

"I'm not playing a game. I'm tired of you being an asshole to me, so you're going to listen or otherwise I can make this much worse than it needs to be."

Xemnas glared but waved his hand for Saïx to continue.

"Don't…_ever_…treat me like that again in front of the others."

For a moment their conversation filled with silence before the Superior leaned back in his chair. "Still upset about last night?"

"You're damn right I'm upset," Saïx snapped at him. "You had everyone laughing at me like I'm a big joke to the Organization!"

"You were picking a fight with me and I fought you fairly," Xemnas coldly remarked. "You deserved the humiliation."

"If you hadn't started to mock me I wouldn't have to pick fights with you!"

"Saïx, all you do is complain. Perhaps if you spent that time being quiet these kinds of things wouldn't happen—"

Saïx angrily swiped his hands across the desk, effectively sending everything flying all over the floor. It really pissed off Xemnas, to say the least.

"Really mature, Saïx. Is that all you can do is blow a fit every time something displeases you? This is why you're so worthless to the Organization. You're hardly worth my time—"

He snarled. It wasn't like normal, though. It felt a lot beastlier than that, and it even silenced Xemnas into quite the sudden stupor. "_Don't_ call me worthless." His voice was entangled with a low growl, something animalistic and wild about it that scared him just as much as it was doing his victim.

"Okay." Xemnas held up his hand to try and calm his companion down. "What shall you have me do to make up for such a blunder?"

Saïx's angered face gently twisted into a smile. "I want you in bed, Superior," he mockingly replied. "Maybe I'll give you a choice. Ride me or be taken like the dog that you are."

Xemnas looked struck at that. For a moment he didn't think Saïx was being serious, but then from there he pondered what choices he even had. Was this even possible for Saïx to force him into such things? And then again…was it force?

He started to smile back at Saïx. "Oh, how very kind of you to give me options."

Saïx moved around the desk and grabbed onto him roughly, pulling Xemnas up from his seat. "It's not out of kindness. It's my demand for your obedience. Willingly or otherwise."

The Superior wasn't certain if he found this carnal behavior attractive or not. He was demanding. Was it a façade? Was Saïx actually feeling this much anger toward him? But there was a physical pulling within him. He yearned to experiment. To satisfy this curiosity. To see what lengths Saïx would go to at this stage…

"I am not a very willing partner when it comes to being a follower," he mused. "I am, after all, a natural born leader."

"You're going to have to learn to like it the other way around," Saïx hissed at him.

Xemnas closed the distance between him and Saïx, using his height as best as he could against the blue-haired man. "Hmmm. Well. Let's play along, shall we? What if I do ride you willingly? Will that give you pleasure?"

"Only if it leaves you hanging," Saïx snidely replied.

"I finish only for myself," Xemnas whispered and pulled Saïx into a hot kiss. It was rougher than last time, almost hateful, yet he could taste the yearning to dominate from the Diviner. It felt like a test between two animals, and whoever won out would be the new leader of the pack.

He had quelled him, at least, taking Saïx's breath away just long enough to take advantage of the situation. He pulled him to his bedroom and threw off the man's clothes quickly, soon dipping his own onto the floor. Before Saïx could regain his ground Xemnas had pulled him back into a heated kiss, slowly descending him onto the bed where he pinned him down. He could feel the rapturous breathing from his partner against him, the tensing of each muscle against his own skin. It turned him on to feel everything like that, so close and personal…

"I thought you said a week, Saïx?" Xemnas mocked him as he kept him down, grinding his hips into Saïx's to feel him squirm.

"I…wanted you to feel how I felt," Saïx finally spoke up, eyes still filled with malice…but deeply saturated with hunger.

"Oh?" Xemnas growled against Saïx's neck and began to pull up Saïx's legs. "My apologies. But I don't do bottom position. You'll just have to take what I give you." His cock teased against Saïx's ass, rubbing along him but not yet entering.

It was nearly sending Saïx into shock. He hated him! He thought he could get one over on Xemnas, to make him the bait, and yet Xemnas had somehow switched it on him. He was back to where he had begun! And he was craving for it, somehow.

"What's the matter, Saïx? Too pleasurable for you?"

Saïx laughed a bit breathlessly, "Anything with you is far from pleasurable, Superior."

"Not even this?" Xemnas pressed closer making Saïx moan slightly.

"Just fuck me and get it over with!" Saïx snarled. "It's what you wanted to do, why bother waiting?"

"Because I enjoy watching you squirm in anticipation, Saïx."

"I anticipate nothing from you."

Xemnas pushed in then, roughly and without preparation, and he could see how it hurt Saïx. "Then perhaps I'll fuck you raw, you can at least anticipate that." He began his deliberate thrusts. Xemnas was far from kind as Saïx had been yesterday, his motions were far more powerful and blunt about what was going on. He was fucking him to get what he wanted and anything else could not slow him down.

And Saïx could tell. He clawed onto Xemnas and hid his face against his shoulder, doing his best not to make any noise that would warn Xemnas of how painful this was. But it was hard to not feel agonized by the roughness, and eventually his breathing laid way to how he was feeling. Even Xemnas could hear how he was hurting him, but for some reason it didn't stop him.

By the time Saïx was near breaking down, Xemnas had released, stinging Saïx's insides with quite the amount of pain to his raw flesh. He pulled out and stared down at his victim, how bruised and pained Saïx seemed to him. "How does it feel?"

Saïx tensed up as he tried to sit up, the pain making it hard to move. "Like you don't know what you're doing, _Superior_. No surprise."

The look on Xemnas's face was far from happy in hearing that, in fact he seemed quite pissed Saïx would even make such a remark. "You're lucky you're still in one piece, Saïx. Now get out."

Again! No, this time he was rebelling. He wasn't going to be shooed away after going through that. Xemnas would have to pick him up and throw him through the doorway if he wanted him gone.

"I'm staying right here, Superior, until I feel like leaving. And after your performance, it might be awhile until I wish to get up and out of your hair."

It made Xemnas nearly livid at that. "I think you heard your orders, Saïx."

"And I have a feeling you're not hearing mine," Saïx hissed at him before grabbing Xemnas and pulling him into a kiss. He didn't get why he had done that. Xemnas just fucked him into the most painful situation he had been in since his facial deformation, and now he was going back for seconds. He hated himself for this hunger. Whatever drove him needed to be taken out of his system.

Yet Xemnas accepted this and he rolled onto his back, pulling Saïx on top of him so he could be more comfortable while having Saïx in such a needy mood. For some reason the kissing was far different than their way of having sex. It seemed more passionate, the way lovers would kiss each other, how it lingered and pulled them back for more. And he enjoyed it, the way the Diviner's body pressed heavily into his so that he could feel how he breathed or tensed, or even when he pressed for more or relaxed lovingly. His hands explored him like a man searching a map, delicately tracing fingers against his spine, along ribs, to arched shoulders and the back of his neck. He even laced his fingers into that blue mane, losing himself into it like an ocean swallowing him up. His fingers lingered there and he pulled from the depths of another hot kiss.

"Your hair is softer," he grumbled quietly. He could tell Saïx was almost embarrassed he had noticed. Or was that contempt? Sometimes it was hard to read him.

"I may have taken up on a few suggestions from a certain leader around here. He's pretty adamant about those things, having soft hair and all. Wants our enemies to be jealous."

Was he being mocked? Ha! He at least enjoyed this kind of teasing. "I think they would be jealous. After all, we need something good about us. We lack hearts. We make up for in our unnaturally good physiques."

Saïx chuckled at that, "That is…You do realize you're making fun of yourself, right?"

"Well, it's making you smile, so I guess it works out in the end."

As if that made any sense. "Oh, obsessive about smiles now? Is that a new thing I should work on? Is it not good enough for you?"

"On the contrary I find it perfectly fine," Xemnas mentioned calmly. "Yours is quite rare. Only shows up once in awhile when you're honestly enjoying something."

Saïx rolled his eyes and settled his head against Xemnas's neck and shoulder, finding it to actually be quite the nice resting spot. "Well. There isn't much to enjoy these days."

Xemnas stayed quiet after that. He supposed that was true, there was nothing to enjoy about being a Nobody. Yet he was somehow…enjoying this? Maybe it wasn't quite like that, not quite the feeling, but the bodily attraction worked itself together. Once Kingdom Hearts was complete, maybe the rest would come later…

Though he supposed that would mean an actual commitment between the two of them. Was that even something he thought of pursuing?

The weight of the situation was finally falling upon him. What was this…and what did it mean, if anything? Did it matter to discuss something like that? Was this just…an agreement to pass the time? Was it even that?

"Saïx?" He questioned his partner and looked down at him. The man had fallen asleep. Ah, he probably bored him into slumber with being so quiet…How long had he been lying there thinking over everything?

Xemnas relaxed further into his spot. It was something they could discuss another day. For now, he would simply enjoy the after effects of sex.

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Another chapter down, more to come soon. Read and review!


	5. Chapter 5

Another chapter! And it's the last one! I hope you all like it.

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A few weeks had passed at The World That Never Was. They hadn't gotten any further in their goals than they had hoped for, but their spirits didn't seem affected by it. Life went on, as did missions.

And for Saïx, so did the continuation of seeing Xemnas. At first it was once in a few days they'd hook up, mostly after a really nasty fight between the two, but it had grown to an everyday thing. Sometimes even twice in a day. It always started out the same. They were only together to discuss something and always ended up disagreeing, or insulting each other, that it'd spark the flames of passion. Sometimes Xemnas purposefully picked fights just to get Saïx riled up. And other times, even if one wasn't in the mood, it'd happen anyway.

When Saïx was away from Xemnas he dreaded what he had done. The way Xemnas treated him was probably about as wanted as a dog turd on one's boot. Yet he kept finding himself back in Xemnas's bedroom, or sometimes even on his desk, as if all of the shaming and crude remarks meant absolutely nothing. He had to admit he did his own share of insulting, too. He sometimes would throw Xemnas completely out of the mood with the things he said, but eventually Xemnas would push past it and get whatever he wanted.

But he believed the worst part was the fear.

The fear that the others might find out, or did know, that they were judging him silently. He had already heard enough passive comments that he spent a lot of time with Xemnas, which he did his best to justify about the needs for help in the filing and understanding of the mission reports, but that could only work for so long. It felt clear to him that the others were suspicious of their behavior behind closed doors, and Saïx wondered if they knew what was going on. And if not…that they'd be discovered eventually.

Each time he was handing out missions he felt worse than ever. He dreaded seeing everyone. He snapped at them bitterly and tried to act as hostile as ever to keep them from seeing how truly shaken he was. But how long could he keep that up?

Saïx just felt worn. How would he ever get past this feeling? And did Xemnas even feel like there were suspicions going on?

He got out of bed, doing his best not to awaken Xemnas, and threw on his clothes. It was nighttime, the usual time that they often convened with each other. It was always the same, though. He would go in once everyone had gotten to their rooms and would leave before anyone woke up. It wasn't actually a rule they ever talked about, but he did it anyway. He merely dreaded being discovered in there.

As he finished dressing he left, going back to his room quietly and absently found himself in the bathroom staring at himself in the mirror. The 'X' glared back at him.

He didn't know if it was the combination of lack of sleep, the stress from worrying, or just the lack of energy, but he turned to the toilet and lost his dinner. He felt even worse after doing that. Was he getting sick? Or was he just losing it?

He washed up and went to bed, feeling just as miserable as he had that morning.

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"You look like shit."

It wasn't a very observant thing from Xigbar, but it was probably more than the man usually would say to him in the morning. Typically it was Xigbar that looked like shit in the morning. Today it seemed things were reversed. The gunner was a bit too glowy looking for Saïx's taste, especially when he felt like his soul had been sucked out of him.

"Ah, I've been taking beauty secrets from you, glad you noticed," Saïx snipped back and jabbed his mission folder directly into Xigbar's chest.

"Asshole," Xigbar sneered before cocking a smile back onto that ever smug face of his. "No really, you do look like shit. You workin' too hard, buddy? Should probably ask Xemnas for a rest, man. Don't need to run the dog ragged."

"As if that would help," Saïx muttered as he almost jabbed Zexion in the head with his mission folder.

"Do you _mind?_" Zexion hissed as he snatched it before losing an eye.

"Sorry," Saïx mumbled and gave Vexen's his next.

"What have you even been up to that would make you look like that anyway?" Vexen snidely interjected, taking his folder with as much disgust he could succumb as possible.

"Probably from having to look at you every day," Saïx snapped at him. "Lay off, okay? I'm just sick. That's all." He jammed the remaining folders against Lexaeus who barely caught them from falling. "Good luck." He left the area before any else could ask him really stupid questions.

They all looked at each other, not entirely sure what had just happened.

"He's been acting really strange lately," Axel spoke up finally. "Has me a bit worried, honestly."

"I agree, he's not been himself as of late," Zexion added.

Vexen rolled his eyes, "So what?"

"One of us could observe him?" Xaldin suggested, eyes looming toward Xigbar.

"He'd smell me from a mile away," Xigbar protested, "He's not too keen in having me around. Maybe someone else do it." He nodded at Zexion. "Like ol' Zexion. He's good at blending in."

Zexion flushed at that. "What?"

"Hey, I like that idea," Axel agreed. "Zexion'll blend in real nicely. Saïx won't even notice you're around."

"Oh come on," Zexion tried to get out of it, but found the others weren't budging. "Fine. I'll observe him when I'm not on missions just to see if he's covering up for something. I think he might be right. He's probably just sick and you're all jumping to conclusions that it's something else."

"Yeah, whatever, just find out and report back to us," Xigbar ordered him.

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Saïx entered Xemnas's office and he plopped the old mission folders on his desk, immediately turning around to leave. If he stayed any longer, then Xemnas would—

"Saïx."

It was too late. Dammit.

Saïx had only taken two steps toward the door, but had abruptly stopped when his name was called out. Very slowly he turned his attention to where Xemnas was at, the man looked seemingly surprised and irritated at his desk. Right.

"Yes, Superior?" Saïx finally asked.

"Where are you going?"

It was a simple question, especially since Xemnas looked puzzled at Saïx's yearning to leave. He didn't have a mission to go on, nor would he get one until after a good romp, but Saïx wasn't in the mood for that. He felt like a wasteland as it was, last he needed was Xemnas moving in on him during this stage of his feelings.

"I'm not feeling well, Superior."

"You do look a little pale. What's wrong?"

Saïx dreaded that question. As if he knew. "I don't know, I'm probably sick," he rudely replied. "What else could 'not feeling well' mean?"

Xemnas glared at him, "I was hoping to hear symptoms, not attitude. If you ask me, you just sound moody. Although that isn't anything new."

"I was sick earlier this morning," Saïx grouchily replied. "And I didn't sleep well. _Okay?_"

He really wanted to get up and slap him, but Xemnas stayed in his seat. "Fine. Then go rest." In a moment of kindness he softened up. "If you'd like to rest here, I could watch over you."

It felt like he was obligated to agree, but he knew in doing so he would not get any rest. Xemnas probably wouldn't be able to contain himself! "Thanks but…no thanks." He could see his words rubbed Xemnas the wrong way. "I just…need some space."

And then he realized what he had said. Saïx panicked. "I mean, not like that, I meant because I'm sick I don't want you getting—"

"You want _space_ from me?" Xemnas sounded irritated. "I'm suddenly crowding you even though any other day you've come here willingly—"

"God you're impossible to deal with," Saïx growled. "You're completely blowing this out of proportion."

"You're giving me mixed signals, that's why."

"I'm not giving anything," he argued back. "Just forget it. I'm going back to bed."

Xemnas watched him leave and for once he didn't call him back or argue.

He wanted…space.

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Saïx wasn't entirely sure how long he had stayed in his room, how many hours he slept and came to only to be pulled under again, but it felt good. Everything just felt better after that. No obligations, no hiding…just nothing. It was perfect.

He took a long shower and preened himself as best as he could, though nothing could ever cover the ugly scar across his face. It did take a few breaths and muttered words of confidence to get over it before he donned clothing and exited his room.

Now he took the long trek to Xemnas's room, though for once he was dreading seeing his Superior far more than running into anyone else. He didn't even know what time it was. Would he be upset with him?

Entering into the room quietly he discovered the office to be empty. He moved toward the bedroom door, opening it up calmly to look within and found it was dark aside from the bedside lamp that glowed over the bed. Xemnas was within, a book and papers sprawled on and around him, but it seemed he had fallen asleep. It was almost something to smile about, how well-suited the situation seemed for the Superior. But Saïx didn't think having him sleeping like that was quite nice, and so he moved closer and removed the items, gently stacking them onto the nightstand.

The shuffling movements roused Xemnas immediately and he looked at Saïx in surprise. "I was in the middle of that."

"It can wait," Saïx murmured after putting the last paper away. "You should get some sleep."

Xemnas looked at his clock. "I suppose it is late."

"Have I been asleep that long?" Saïx questioned, surprised it was nighttime.

"More so than you think. It's been over a day. I suppose two, technically."

"Two?" Saïx couldn't believe he had slept through two whole days! Had he really needed that much rest?

"It's fine, you seemed to have needed it." Xemnas moved and repositioned his pillow so he could lie down. "If you like, you can finish my paperwork for me."

"If…_you_ like, I could join you." Saïx wasn't certain what made him say that, but the immediate look of hunger seemed to wash over Xemnas. He could tell the man had missed him. Well. Maybe he wouldn't go so far as to say that. Maybe he just really yearned for attention. "Shall I take the silence as a yes?"

"I was merely wondering what you'd want to do, considering you needed _space_."

Damn. He did not want to have this argument right now. For once he was in a good mood and it had to be soured by bitter and petty comments. "You never know when to give up, do you? I didn't mean anything by that. I was sick. I didn't know if it was contagious…I simply thought that some separation would ensure you wouldn't catch whatever I had. That's it."

"I don't honestly think you're telling the truth," Xemnas replied softly. "You want time away from me and I can tell. You only want to come here on your own terms. I suppose you must think I push these situations for selfish reasons." He hesitated. "Well maybe you are right."

It wasn't what he expected Xemnas to admit. Not in the weeks he had known Xemnas would he ever admit he was..pushy. "You…agree, then, that this has gotten a bit out of hand?"

Xemnas didn't drop his eyes from him. Maybe shame wasn't something he dealt with like everyone else. Maybe he wasn't ashamed at all. "I don't know. It is something I enjoy doing with you. Quite a lot, if I must be truthful. It is strange…because we seem to disagree on everything and our fights drive me crazy. But the results are always…satisfying. And that is something I do not get very often. Yet the more we act, I can say there is that ugly side to it all."

"So you fear the others will find out, too?"

Xemnas frowned. "I…well no, I actually never thought about that. No one bothers me in my room. I just assumed things were safe."

Saïx glared. "You're not the one who faces them every day, has to sneak around at night, hoping that each pass through the hallway will be without interruption or being spied on."

"I suppose that's true. But who said you ever had to leave?"

There was silence before Saïx changed the subject, "So what was it that you were afraid of?"

The Superior contemplated how to put it before he bluntly remarked, "That it means something."

What? It…means something? As in… Saïx felt his mind whirling again. That sickening feeling was coming back over him. Maybe going back to bed would be better than talking this over. "Like it's…supposed to be more than what it is?"

"It could be. I don't know yet. But I have…discovered time without you has been…not exactly joyful. Tolerable but…not what I want."

"Xemnas," Saïx exasperated, "We're Nobodies—"

"I know," Xemnas chuckled, "I am your leader, I think I would know what we are."

"Then why would you go and say something like _that_. That it could…BE something."

"I am thinking for the future, Saïx, not the now. Right now we are…acting as we see fit. It could mean more, it could mean less. We can't exactly feel emotions as we once had, so this ebbs into…unknown territory."

"But when we regain our hearts…?" Saïx followed through with his thoughts.

"Yes, precisely. If we…regain our hearts, maybe we'll see something else. Something more."

Saïx felt shitty. "Or we will discover this was the…nastiest thing we've ever done."

Xemnas frowned but soon laughed, "Yes, and then we'd never be able to face each other, would we? Constantly knowing what we had been doing to each other only to discover we really prefer the opposite."

"Well…I guess it's just…out of convenience. Or something." Saïx didn't even know what he was saying. Was he trying to justify what they were doing? Or realizing that maybe he thought one way and Xemnas thought the other. At least with him talking like that, it sounded as if Xemnas was hoping things would turn into a wonderful commitment. He, on the other hand, wasn't sure what he wanted. He just didn't feel anything. Then again, that was normal, and honestly he thought it best to not overthink this situation. They were just…together for the benefit of satisfying one another. Right?

"I wouldn't call you a convenience," Xemnas mentioned calmly. "You're a lot more than that."

"Well. I guess I don't see it any other way. You can't feel. I just…happened to be constantly around, annoying the shit out of you. In the end you thought 'well, why not?' And then…things sort of evolved from there."

The subject turned into a much darker corner at that, and the Superior could obviously be seen as irritated with the way it was going. "So you don't want any part of this."

"What? I didn't say that, I just don't need it as much as you." Shit, why did he say that?

"So it's my fault you're with me all the time?"

"You never give me missions," he lamely responded.

"That's true. Because…" Xemnas hesitated before barreling onward, "Because I need help with paperwork, with understanding the other missions, with growing this Organization. Let alone attending to the members we already have, getting back to them with feedback, trying to improve everything. Understanding our limitations…our needs, what could come next. Are we in trouble, could things get worse? Do we have a time limit? I…" He sighed. "There is…so much I want to know. And I need clarification with…help."

"That involves screwing me," Saïx blatantly added.

"You come here after every morning and every night, Saïx! Good God, I thought you came here _for_ those things. I thought you…enjoyed it. Are you saying there is nothing there?"

He felt bad now, because all of those questions Xemnas asked had been exactly what plagued him. He just wasn't sure yet… "I don't know what I feel." He paused and saw it was a dissatisfying answer to Xemnas. "I'm sorry. It's…I don't know."

Xemnas gave an irritated sigh. "Just leave."

Saïx looked surprised at that.

"Well? Go on. Go. I get what you're saying. Just go."

He didn't even know what he was saying, how could Xemnas know? But he didn't argue. He got up and left the room, heading back to his own to think this one over.

Fuck. What had he done now?

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"Here's your report, Zexion," Saïx mumbled the next morning. He had gotten the reports without running into Xemnas, somehow, and was back at his old job. It was as if nothing happened, right?

"Good to see you back in the game," Axel remarked as he took his and frowned. "Fuck, not Atlantica again."

As Saïx had given out the last report, he realized…there was still one left? He stared at it. VII. His? He…he got one?

A sinking feeling hit his stomach rather hard. Xemnas probably got really fucking pissed with him last night that he was sending him off to die. Lord knows what this could mean…

"Hey, what did you get?" Axel asked as he nodded at Saïx's folder. "I'll totally trade you if you want."

Saïx opened his up and curiously stared at what was inside. "The Land of Dragons."

"Hmm. Haven't been there yet."

"You don't want to go there," Xigbar grumbled. "Cold as fuck on the mountains and the boot camp is killer."

Axel frowned, "On second thought, I don't mind mermaids _that_ much."

Saïx sighed. More training. He _hated_ his life. "It's not Olympus, though, I think I will be able to handle this."

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Fuuuuuuuuuuuck he was so wrong about being able to handle this. Was he honestly this weak? This imbalanced? This _bad_?

He couldn't work with the pole as well as others, he couldn't stand on one leg without falling into water every time he tried, and God knows how bad he was at trying to climb with weights on his arm. At least everyone else was bad, too. But it didn't make him feel any better that he was as bad as everyone else.

Fuck.

A brutal day and night of being yelled at, pummeled, and beaten, Saïx returned to his room. He lost his breakfast immediately upon getting there and spent the rest of the night on his bathroom floor, basking at how cool the tile felt against his boiling head.

Never again would he bother Xemnas about feelings and what he wanted. A thousand nights of being on bottom would probably be far better than ever facing another mission like that.

Bruised and exhausted, he felt his eyelids close shut.

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When he woke up he took a shower and dragged himself to Xemnas's office. It was morning again? Fuck. He grabbed up the pile of folders, noticing Xemnas wasn't there again. He headed to the briefing room only to discover everyone was there.

Even Xemnas.

He tensed up and nervously brushed his fingers through his hair before arriving up to the others.

"About time," Xemnas snapped at him. His eyes landed on the folders. "No, no. Not today." He took them and set them on the table. "Something more important has come up."

"Like what?" Saïx asked suspiciously.

"That's what we've wanted to know, but we had to wait for you," Vexen grumbled irritably.

Saïx could feel all those eyes on him. Great. As if this was his fault. "Sorry," he mumbled.

"It doesn't matter," Xemnas remarked. "The good news is that we are able to require new members. I discovered one yesterday. He…hasn't said anything yet, but I have roomed him so far and the Dusks are watching over him. His name is Demyx. I have great confidence that more will come."

"So…anything special we should do to the guy?" Xigbar asked. Not like he was volunteering to check him out, but someone had to ask the important questions.

"As of right now he will simply rest. When he's ready, I know he'll be up and moving, then we'll get into details on who should show him how things are run."

Saïx sighed at that. Unfortunately it was loud enough that everyone looked at him. "I just know that means I'm going to get stuck doing it."

"Well, Saïx, if you were half as good as everyone else, you wouldn't get stuck with those kinds of jobs," Xemnas quipped back without looking at him.

What an asshole. Saïx thought of punching him but knew it'd be a losing battle. Instead he battled with words, something the two of them were strangely good at doing together. "Well, Superior, if you gave me more challenging missions I wouldn't look as worthless, but apparently paperwork is the only thing you think I can do. Which is funny considering you should be capable of handling it yourself, but it seems that's a bit rough for you."

Everyone tensed. What the fuck.

Xemnas snapped his eyes toward Saïx with such hate for him. "If I gave you even half the challenge the others do you'd be crying, which if I remember correctly is a rather ugly thing coming from you."

Well then. If he was going to get dirty… "You don't even have to cry to be ugly, you're pretty good at it as is."

"What an interesting thing to be hearing from someone like you," Xemnas sniped back, his words filled with contempt. Each one laced with poison, it seemed, and yet the glow in his eyes were spelling out more.

"Pity everything you say isn't interesting at all."

"And anything you say isn't worth hearing."

"Then why do you talk to me all the time?"

Xemnas felt the urge to grab him, just to pull him in and smother that mouth of his, to give him a powerful kiss and shut him up for good. It burned deeply in him. "I talk at you, not with you, there's a difference. You just happen to respond for some reason."

"If I didn't respond, Superior, you'd be having conversations with yourself. As much as we all know how little sanity you have, I think it's best I just keep up the façade that you're only half the crackpot you're known to be."

Xigbar looked between the two and then at the rest of the crew. Um. Should they leave? Was this meeting over? The looks the two were giving each other was…intense. Or something. He couldn't place his finger on it.

Xemnas grabbed Saïx by the front of his cloak and pulled him in close, threatening him with a nasty glare. "You'd do best to keep quiet, Saïx."

"And why is that, Superior?" Saïx hissed back.

"Otherwise I will silence you."

"And how will you do that, Superior?" Saïx mocked him.

They were daringly close, so close it was hard for Xemnas to just continue staring at him. He could feel Saïx, the way his blood pumped through him, and even more so that he could see the way he looked at him. He felt it, too. The yearning, the desire.

Xemnas finally replied, calmly but with firmness. "This meeting is over. I was going to give everyone the day off…but given recent behavior problems, I think getting to your missions is adequate punishment." He then let go of Saïx and left, hearing groans only after he had rounded the corner.

Saïx didn't bother to grab his folder. He was…too entranced. Too enthralled by what happened between them. Maybe even scared, too, as all eyes stared at him awkwardly wondering what had passed between him and Xemnas.

"You seem to get on his nerves a lot," Axel mentioned calmly as he picked up the folders to hand them out, taking over Saïx's duty since he was too stupefied to do it.

"Yeah, I've never seen him clash with someone like that before," Xigbar mumbled.

"Aren't you scared?" Zexion asked.

Saïx shook his head. "What's there to be scared of?"

"Getting your ass handed to you on a silver platter again, or would you prefer a giant 'X' on your rump as well?" Vexen asked him rather snottily. "Honestly, VII, what problem you have with Xemnas shouldn't cause so many issues for the rest of us."

"Yeah, man, kiss and make up. Give his shoes a shine, not ruffle his feathers," Xigbar added.

"I can't help it," Saïx muttered. "We don't get along over any subject."

"Forget about getting along," Xaldin remarked irritably. "Just make him happy and the rest of us can be happy. You don't see us stepping on his coattails, do you?"

"The more agreeable you are to him, the more agreeable he will be to whatever dumb wishes you have," Vexen advised. "He's a simple man to get along with. Not everything has to be a challenge."

Saïx snorted at that before turning to leave.

"Hey, you forgot your mission," Axel held out the folder.

"Fuck it, I'm not doing it."

"But—"

"I'm going to _make amends_. Leave it on the table."

As he left Vexen frowned. "He didn't hear a single thing we said, did he?"

"Nope," Xigbar agreed. His eye swiveled to Zexion. "Go check on them."

"R-Right now?" Zexion asked, rather upset he was stuck doing such horrible tasks.

"Yeah, hurry up."

Zexion moved off, not sure if he wanted to hear the outbursts that would happen between them. Ugh.

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The minute Saïx entered Xemnas's office he was pinned against the wall and felt the Superior's mouth on his. Hands pulled him in tight and toyed with his hair, and a growl of pleasure escaped him.

"I hoped you'd come." Xemnas bit heavily against Saïx's bottom lip, surrendering him to deep kisses and bites against his jaw and neck.

"I couldn't resist," Saïx breathed.

"I thought you felt nothing in coming here." Hands began to release his clothing, searching for ways to pleasure him.

"I think I realized last night that I prefer this over The Land of Dragons."

Xemnas stopped for a moment to look at him before chuckling, "I see." He slowed down now, kissing him more passionately than before, lust turning into a moment of gentle ecstasy. "I could make you dream of never leaving my room, Saïx. You just have to say the word."

Saïx felt their hips grind together and he almost gasped. Shit. Was he really that needy? "And what word would that be, Superior?"

He continued to grind against him and with hot and heavy breath he murmured into Saïx's ear. "Just say yes."

"_Yes_," Saïx hissed at him and felt his pants be ripped from him. Good God. Xemnas was not patient. As Xemnas undid his pants he only pushed them down a bit, soon pressing Saïx back up against the wall and hiking him up so his feet were off the ground, and in fact wrapped onto Xemnas's hips.

"Good boy," Xemnas chided before thrusting into him.

Saïx hollered at the feeling. Not prepared. Again. But this time it felt good to be in pain. Why? This wasn't something to enjoy!

"Oh God, Xemnas," he shouted, clinging onto his partner hungrily.

"I knew you'd like this," Xemnas smirked and then began to pump into him. He was very rough with him, harsh and unloving, and yet it hit Saïx's nerves like a blast of fire. Hot kisses, nails to skin, the thrusting…all of it was over stimulating him.

Before Saïx could even realize it, his panting breaths turned to heated gasps, and that soon turned into a full out scream when Xemnas finally hit the right spot. He felt his back arch and his legs tighten, the feeling hitting from his base all the way up him, bursting into every sensory nerve he had on his body and rupturing him into a feeling he had never had with Xemnas before. It was full blown, an orgasm far deeper than he had ever had in his lifetime.

As it slowly ebbed away to tenderness, Saïx couldn't help but shakily hold onto Xemnas and kiss him. It was, perhaps, the first time he ever kissed him as a means of saying thanks and Xemnas seemed appreciative of the new side he had revealed. Or perhaps…unlocked. Either way, Xemnas found this as a bonus.

He kept him pinned against the wall, their kisses continuing into that of true lovers when Xemnas stopped and looked at his door, frowning.

"Saïx, you left the door open."

Saïx looked over at it, the joy of the playtime suddenly turning into horror and fear. He didn't think he had. No. He had closed it. Someone else had to have opened it.

"Luckily everyone is out on their missions," Xemnas pushed it closed and smirked at him. "Why not get into bed and share those kisses with the rest of my body?"

Saïx's dread stayed with him, but he was finally able to stand on the ground. Maybe their roughhousing made the door open? Yes. It had to be that. No one would…ever dare open the door.

God, what if someone heard them?

"Saïx," Xemnas growled against his lips. "I see your mind whirling, now quit it and hop to it."

Right. He didn't need to panic. It was nothing.

He grabbed up his items and brought them to Xemnas room where he discarded the last remains of his clothing, helping Xemnas out of his own so that they could continue their moment on a more passionate level. It was almost romantic in senses, and they even went for a second round, slow and sensual this time. It was enough to ease Saïx's mind and to give in to his sweet seductions.

No one was ever there. He was safe.

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"What I saw…was…" Zexion shook his head. "Something I was…not expecting."

"Well go on," Vexen urged him.

"Yeah, man, don't leave us hangin'." Xigbar leaned in closer. "What did you see that has you lookin' like you saw a ghost?"

Zexion looked at everyone carefully before clearing his throat. "The…Superior had Saïx…up against the wall. And they were…fornicating."

"Forni-what? Wait. You mean they were having sex?" Axel asked, eyes wide.

"Are you certain?" Xaldin asked a bit confused. "They were fighting tooth and nail earlier—"

"Probably like it that way," Lexaeus mentioned calmly.

"I am telling the truth. It was…very obvious what they were doing. They were even…kissing. And." Zexion looked embarrassed. "Well Saïx was sort of…"

"Sort of…" Vexen raised an eyebrow in disgust.

"Shouting…or…something like that."

Xigbar laughed, "Enjoying the Superior's finer aspects, it seems. No wonder Saïx rarely gets missions. Xemnas is too busy with him."

"Should we bring this up to them?" Zexion asked. "I mean. A…pursuit of such things is not entirely logical, given our condition but—"

"Hell no," Axel spoke up. "I would not say anything to them unless we all did it together in one room, and that is not happening. I am not going to stand around and see how awkward shit gets."

"Or painful for us," Xaldin murmured.

"But it doesn't even make sense!" Zexion argued. "I don't get why they are…doing that! Maybe they need help or something? Or perhaps they are…hoping to pursue things…after Kingdom Hearts is together? I think it'd help to know. I mean. Their relationship affects all of us."

"Kid is right," Xigbar added. "It does affect us. One fight and it all lands on us. Can't have them fucking everything up. But I don't know if dropping it on them that we know is a good idea either. That could backfire…badly."

"So what do you suggest?" Vexen asked irritably, finding it to be too tight of a situation to have wiggle room in.

"Guess we could just…tell Xemnas the best way to make Saïx compliant is to screw him," Axel joked. "And that we'd all support him in such behavior."

"Uh. I am not…no. I would never—" Zexion mumbled.

"But you'd ask him why he's screwing Saïx?" Xigbar asked him curiously.

"Uh." Zexion frowned. "I was kind of thinking as a group…someone else would ask the questions."

Axel laughed. "Yeah. No. Why don't we just let them fuck and ignore it all? And if something slips…we'll just pretend it doesn't even matter."

"Because waiting that long could probably kill us given how rude they are to each other in public," Vexen grumbled.

"Why don't we surpass the one person that actually matters. Xemnas. He would probably not want to have any kind of discussion with us based on this situation. If we forget he's even in the equation, we're left with Saïx. Talking to him will not cause us any problems…and he would have to deal with finding ways to uh…well make it so that whatever Xemnas and he does will not hurt us in the end." Zexion at least thought it sounded logical.

"Oh yes, let's sit the irrational slut down and tell him that he can bang Xemnas all he wants, just to make sure whatever fights they have stays in the bedroom," Vexen mused. "That will go over WELL."

"Yeaaaah, Saïx isn't the easiest person to talk to," Xigbar mumbled. "But confronting him might be better than confronting Xemnas."

"Are you sure?" Axel asked. Everyone looked at him like he was nuts. Of all the moments to think Xemnas would be better to talk to, this did not seem like one of those instances. "Saïx is probably stressed as it is having to bend over for Xemnas every day and then having to face us. I've seen him a few times at night meandering the hallways. He probably makes regular visits there. I bet he's high-strung about us finding out. Telling him that we know could send him off the deep end, which might end up causing issues for Xemnas, who will then take it out on us. I believe…we should go to Xemnas instead. It may surprise him we've discovered his secret, but when we tell him we don't care…he'll probably just keep doing what he's doing. And he'll probably find ways to make Saïx relax more. And if he wants, he can break the news to Saïx…thus leaving us out of the issue of their relationship. I mean honestly…if Xemnas knows from us, _directly_, that we don't care, then he'll probably care a whole lot less than if Saïx were to tell him."

"He kind of has a point," Xigbar muttered, "Dare I even think it."

"How will we break this news to Xemnas, though? Especially without having Saïx around," Zexion asked.

"One of us could call Xemnas away while they're doing paperwork. Say it's about…oh what's the new guy's name again?"

"Demyx," Vexen answered Axel's question.

"Yeah. Say it's about that, then just…you know. Break it to him with all of us around."

"And when should we do that? Obviously before Demyx starts functioning."

Xigbar nodded, "Yeah maybe we should uh…do it tonight? Not right now, but…before they finish work, otherwise Saïx might follow in curiosity."

"And who is going to retrieve Xemnas?" Zexion asked.

All eyes fell into the shortest member.

"Why did I even ask," Zexion whined.

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Zexion eased himself very slowly into the office, making sure not to stare at the spot on the wall that he had earlier discovered Xemnas and Saïx using as a means of support for their personal games. Xemnas was at his desk mulling over mission reports when he had spotted the Schemer. "Zexion." It was a very slow response, as if expecting something very good from him in return for being in there.

Zexion gulped. Right. "Ah. Xemnas. Superior!" He corrected himself quickly. "Where's Saïx?" Shit, why did he ask that question?

Xemnas, without missing a bit, replied, "In bed."

There was silence before Zexion nodded nervously, "Oh. I didn't realize. Well. Demyx is..he's starting to wake up more, we thought it'd be important to inform you of this. And uh…well now that he's functioning…um." Zexion totally lost what he had rehearsed. Shoot. "We wanted you to look at him."

Xemnas glanced back over at him curiously. "Is something wrong?"

"Yes." Just go with that.

He rose and started to come at him. Zexion turned and started to lead the way, really hoping that Saïx wasn't going to be popping in anytime soon. "I hope this wasn't much of an interruption, Superior."

"It's perfectly fine, it's important that we get Demyx roused and functioning."

Oh shit, he really hoped this wouldn't come back to bite him in the ass.

As they moved toward the briefing room, Zexion turned to the Superior. "In here."

"He's in here?" Xemnas asked rather seriously. "He got this far?"

"Yes?" Zexion lied again, stepping inside to see everyone else standing around there.

Xemnas walked in and looked amongst them. Curiously he noticed that…Demyx wasn't there. "What…is going on?"

"We need to talk," Axel spoke up first and then immediately looked at Xigbar to go further.

"Me?" Xigbar pointed at himself before laughing. "Ah! Okay. Well, Superior, we have a problem."

"With Demyx?" Xemnas asked.

"What? No."

"Then…why did you say…" Xemnas looked at Zexion, and then realized he probably was making shit up to get him out here. "Okay…What is going on?"

"What is going on is _you_," Vexen shot in, then instantly shut up.

"Me." Now what. What did he do wrong?

"Superior, we're going to put it to you as plainly as possible to avoid further embarrassment on the issue, and we mean this in the best way possible," Xaldin started.

"We know you're screwing Saïx," Axel interjected. He frowned. Did he just say that out loud? He meant to THINK it.

Xemnas looked astonished. "What?"

"We know you've been…with Saïx. It's not debatable. We know the truth. We just..uh." Xigbar looked around before smirking. "Just wanted to congratulate you!"

Vexen frowned, "That is not what we called this meeting for."

"Well yeah, but congrats anyway! Roped in the beast and all!"

Zexion irritably spoke up, "We actually called you here to tell you that we don't mind your pursuits with Saïx, just that to keep your fights…between yourselves and not on us. Earlier Saïx riled you up and it caused all of us to lose out on a day off. We would appreciate if you would take us into consideration no matter how Saïx acts."

He couldn't believe it. How did they know?

He remembered the open door. Saïx…that idiot.

"We still completely respect you, Superior," Xigbar added in. "Nothing wrong with a little booty call once in awhile." Vexen hissed at him in disgust, but he was on a roll. "You could screw him night and day if that's what you feel like doing. We just don't want your fights causing us any problems."

Xemnas still looked a bit speechless.

"We're only complaining about the fights," Zexion hinted.

"I'll keep that in mind," he finally mustered.

"Thanks, Superior!" Xigbar patted him on the arm, which got quite the stingy look from Xemnas. "We haven't bothered talking to Saïx. You know how he can be with his reactions."

"Yes…" Xemnas replied slowly.

"We thought it best to go to you if you decide to tell Saïx to calm down on the whole..public outcries," Xigbar continued. "Or if you decide not to tell him at all, fine with us."

"We just want fairness," Zexion added.

"Right," Xemnas curtly responded. "Was that all?"

No one spoke up. They weren't sure if that went over well or not.

Xemnas took a moment to look them all over. He didn't want to pursue the topic further, but… "And you're all okay with this?"

The group looked at each other before Xigbar nodded, "Not bothering us any. It's Saïx you have to deal with, not us."

"Right," he muttered before turning. "Get back to what you were doing, then." He left.

The others glanced around at each other. Did that go over well?

"Well we're not dead yet," Axel replied cheerfully.

"Yet," Lexaeus emphasized the word.

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Xemnas entered back into his bedroom and looked down at Saïx who was slumbering peacefully on his stomach, his naked back exposed to him. He couldn't help but pull himself on top of him and kiss that soft flesh.

It roused Saïx awake and he shifted under Xemnas's weight to face him, giving the Superior a quick kiss back. "What time is it? I think I slept the entire day away."

Xemnas smiled, though it seemed forced. "Something like that."

Wasn't exactly the thing he expected to hear, and Saïx immediately picked up on the strange behavior. Shit. Something happened. "Superior?"

"We need to talk."

Oh wonderful, that was not what Saïx liked to wake up to. "Then talk."

"The others have informed me that they know we have been together."

This immediately made Saïx feel like he was going to be sick. All of them. They all knew. How long? It was as if his worst fears had come true.

"They said they didn't care what we did, just that our future fights be kept between ourselves. I suppose they didn't appreciate having their holiday taken away because of you."

Not that that made Saïx feel any better. THEY KNEW. They knew he was having sex with Xemnas! He felt mortified.

"So from now on I will try to do my best not to let my anger against you fall upon them. It's only fair."

"That's it?" Saïx spoke up, voice a little high and irritated. "They KNOW."

"Yes. As I said," Xemnas mentioned calmly.

"Do you have any idea what this means?"

"…That we've had sex with each other numerous times and the others have acknowledged that it has happened?"

"That they…they." Saïx sighed and tried to straighten his thoughts. "When they look at us they'll think of _me_ being under you. Ugh. And they'll probably joke about it! They'll start to say shit to me!"

Xemnas screwed up his face. He wasn't quite following Saïx's thoughts until it all clicked into place. Ah. Saïx…Saïx was afraid of the confrontation. He thought his life would get worse in them knowing. "I doubt it. They mentioned I was the one who needed to talk to you and discuss matters on the situation. If you pretend I never told you a thing, they probably won't say a word about what they know."

"But they'll still _think_ about it," Saïx moaned and grabbed a pillow, pulling it over his head. "They're going to think I'm such a bottom feeder. The lowest member of the food chain."

"In all honesty, Saïx, I think quite the opposite. Harassing you would not do well for them."

"And what makes you say that?" Saïx pushed his pillow away to stare at Xemnas. He wanted to call it quits. To get away from being labeled inappropriately. He didn't want to be known as Xemnas's pet, or some other weird fetish-y name that people thought when it came to these kinds of relationships.

"Because if they lay a finger on you…" Xemnas leaned against him, lips brushing against Saïx's. "They have to deal with me. Any little problem you have…I will straighten out. And they will not want to get on my bad side."

Not that he didn't believe him, but there was something strange about that. "Why would you do that?"

"Because I'm having sex with you. I want you to perform well. Worrying about all the garbage the others do isn't going to make you very satisfactory, Saïx, and that displeases me. And whatever bothers me is going to be an issue with the others. And they don't want issues, so they will realize that if you're happy…I'm happy…which makes them happy."

Somehow Saïx's selfish words had become Xemnas's selfish desires. He didn't know if he liked that or not. He supposed it was better than anything. Xemnas was essentially saying he was protecting him from the group…and that's all he honestly wanted, was to ensure that he wasn't disrespected for this debauchery.

"All right," Saïx mumbled. "Okay."

"We're all good?" Xemnas asked him, rather pleased how that turned out.

"No, I'm still very, very uncomfortable with the idea that they know we're behind closed doors doing things that shouldn't be made a public issue. In fact I think I would have rather died than hear that they know. But it's something we'll just…work past."

"Good," Xemnas growled against him. "Because all this talk about sex has me yearning for you."

Saïx rolled his eyes, "Do you ever take anything serious—" he was cut off when lips connected to his. Another round.

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Several months had passed and Saïx was doing his usual job of handing out missions. As the man walked off afterward, as he always did, Xigbar and a few of the others hung back. They had gotten a few others in their crew, but it was obvious they all knew that Saïx was a person you never wanted to deal with. It was like a God given rule. Though some didn't know as to why, the former members knew the whole spiel.

"There he goes again," Axel muttered to Xigbar.

"Yeah. Off to please the Superior. Have to admit Saïx's attitude, though always frigid and rude, has been better than ever."

The redhead nodded, "Yeah, scarily enough to admit, his bad attitude isn't as bad as it was."

"And when they're seen together it does brighten a room, eh?" Xigbar replied and elbowed his companion. Though Axel seemed to glare at that.

"They talk to each other like they're above everyone else, it's kind of sickening actually."

"But they _like_ doing that to each other, so it's kind of cute."

"Don't…ever say cute. Ever again." Otherwise Axel would probably lose his breakfast.

Meanwhile, as Saïx got to Xemnas's room, he dropped off the files as he always did and made his way to the bedroom. He found Xemnas in there already, the man was freshly showered and smelled heavenly. It made Saïx hungry for him…yearning like he did every day.

"Oh, you caught me," Xemnas mentioned with a smirk on his face. "I haven't dressed yet."

"Hmmm…just the way I like it."

"The greatest Superior you know naked with only a towel covering himself?" Xemnas questioned him. Only good answers would make him more agreeable.

Saïx pulled Xemnas close to him and gave him a kiss first before saying anything else. "Oh no. I was thinking how I like my toast. Burnt and all."

Xemnas gave him quite the look, somewhere between amused and pissy. "Well, I can't exactly say I like my food moldy…"

Saïx smiled. "I was thinking more of…blueberry pie."

"Ooooh," Xemnas mused at that. "You're my dessert now?"

Saïx gave him a playful kiss at that. "You bet…and you better enjoy it."

Xemnas moved Saïx out of his clothing and lowered him onto the bed.

And as they moved together, Saïx thought back over the months. The fights, the nights, the worries and possible regrets…

It all wound up for the better in the end. An actual attraction between them, a sort of…commitment perhaps. Saïx didn't know what to call it, but it was there, hidden but there.

And though he did not have a heart…he loved it. He was glad that he had shed off the negative thoughts or the indecisiveness and gave in to Xemnas. Because for once…he was actually happy, and he didn't need emotions to realize that.

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THE END

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Well, that's the end of this fic. I hope you all enjoyed it. I made it a happy ending (very rare for me) but I couldn't imagine it ending poorly. Saïx and Xemnas in the games tend to have a very cordial bond, so it wouldn't make sense (if this were canon) to end up on a bad note.

Thanks for reading and for any who review, thank you very, very much! I love feedback rather dearly, it helps stimulate the mind in more ways than you can imagine. Every review counts. Sometimes it's the only thing that keeps us writers coming back. So thank you again!

And now I bid you adieu.


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